Every Disaster a Challenge

Posted on July 24, 2006

Back in mid-January 2006, in a regular meeting between the Defense Ministry, the Commander of the Defense Force and the three service chiefs, agreement was reached that given the circumstances facing Indonesia’s location within “the Ring of Fire”, the Defense Force (TNI) would concentrate more on “military operations other than war” rather than focusing defense outlays beefing up its on strike forces. “Professionalism” of the military in the narrow sense was out of the question anyway since the “total defense and security” doctrine (sishankamrata) which Indonesia espoused since the revolutionary years of 1945-1950 obliged every Indonesian citizen to take part in the total defense and security of the country. Now that the Indonesian Government is now simultaneously undertaking recovery and rehabilitation problems following the…

Categories: Defense

Matching Reality with the Law

Posted on July 12, 2006

The Indonesian Parliament recently passed two landmark legislation . On July 11, the Aceh Governance Act was passed, after over 5 months of debate following the agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) reached at Helsinki in August 2005. The agreement was brokered by the European Union and representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). All credit to Interior Minister Muhammad Maaruf and his staff who tirelessly defended that the any provisions of the MOU with GAM must pass the litmus test of Indonesian sovereignty as provided in the Indonesian Constitution of 1945. GAM had insisted, for example, that the Indonesian Defense Force (TNI), should exclusively deal with “external defense” and that only the Indonesian…

Categories: Nation

“Governance”, “Delivery ” and National Recovery

Posted on July 1, 2006

For the past eighteen months, the most talked about issue in Indonesian policy circles has centered on governance as the key solution to Indonesia’s economic recovery. Governance__both in officialdom, as well as in corporate as well as in civic society__was the key to stabilizing the economy as macro economic indicators began to improve: inflation was well under control, the government’s reserves peaked at $43 billion, economic growth rate at a respectable if not spectacular 5,4%, and there are plans to repay ahead of schedule the IMF $2.4 billion__about half of Indonesia’s outstanding debt. Governance was the issue at all levels__national, provincial, local (regency, district) because the key problem since May 1998 was that as Indonesia was becoming democratic (at least for those who can…

Categories: Development