“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools,” Thucydides said centuries ago.

I learned this from Brig. Gen. Kristomei Sianturi, the commander of the cadet regiment at the Military Academy in Magelang, Central Java, where cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, heads of government agencies and presidential advisors and special envoys gathered last week for a retreat, which was unprecedented in the history of the country.

Kristomei, who helped organize the retreat, taught me at least two things. First, our military personnel are intellectuals. The academy realizes that in this digital era, teaching only traditional and conventional war tactics is no longer relevant for the military cadets, who will fill strategic posts in the Indonesian Military or other state institutions in the future.

Second, even though our brain capacity maybe easily upgraded thanks in part to artificial intelligence, we still have to embrace discipline and unity. We need to become a morning person and keep our body in shape in order to keep our mind sharp. To be able to work as a team we need to learn synchronization and harmony, which we can understand through marching together.

The academy’s goal is now to train more and more “scholar warriors” or soldiers whose competency can rival that of technocrats. President Prabowo Subianto and some of the ministers and deputy ministers are graduates of the academy.

Stella Christie, the deputy higher education, research and technology minister, has said on many occasions that our long-term memory is trained by elaboration.

The cabinet retreat and the impact of learning how to march together last week also need elaboration. Certain media and critics have branded the marches the cabinet members practiced last week as “militaristic” or “overly formalized”.