Military Businesses and the Reform Process

Posted on June 23, 2006

No defense ministry and defense force in all of South East Asia has been subjected to more international scrutiny about its role in the life of the country than the Indonesian Defence Force (Tentara Nasional Indonesia). Since President Soeharto, a retired general, stepped down in May, 1998, the TNI reform process has been periodically in the forefront of news coverage by national and international media, none more so than the of the ”military businesses” owned, operated by or linked to any one of the tri-services, Army, Navy and Air Force. Most domestic and foreign analysts, particularly NGOs, incessantly find fault with almost anything and everything the TNI (especially the army) did, is doing and will do in the future. The anti-military tone is partly…

Categories: Defense

Debate on Pancasila

Posted on June 18, 2006

It’s a measure of our times of political transition that the debate about Pancasila as state identity (dasar negara) continues even after President Yudhoyono’s reaffirmation of the precepts as the “fundamental basis of our national life” on June 1, 2006, at the 61st anniversary of the birth of Pancasila speech proclaimed by the late President Soekarno on June 1, 1945, a few months before Indonesia’s declaration of independence on August 17, 1945. President Yudhoyono emphasized the need to fulfill the basic consensus since 1945: Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution, The Unitary State of Indonesia, Diversity in Unity. Some Islamist groups had alarmed minority and non-Islamic communities with their fervent call for a stricter adherence to a more Islamic precept of social, economic and political life…

Categories: Nation

More Humility in Development Planning

Posted on June 14, 2006

The fifteenth CGI (Consultative Group on Indonesia) meeting was held June 14, 2006 at Bank Indonesia. About eigth cabinet ministers attended the opening session with lead speakers Dr Boediono, the Chief Economics Minister; Dr Sri Mulyani, the Finance Minister and Adm.Widodo, the Chief Security Minister. dr Andrew Steer. Country Director for Indonesia of the World Bank, presided over the sessions. Two publications, Investing for Growth and Recovery, prepared by the World Bank Jakarta Office, and Preliminary Damage and Loss Assessment of the Yogyakarta and Central Java Natural Disaster , prepared by BAPPENAS the National Planning Agency, the Local Governments of Yogyakarta and Central Java and International partners (World Bank, Asian Development Bank) was issued to participants.

Categories: Development