{"id":10,"date":"2006-07-24T18:40:23","date_gmt":"2006-07-24T18:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/?p=10"},"modified":"2006-07-24T18:40:23","modified_gmt":"2006-07-24T18:40:23","slug":"every-disaster-a-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/?p=10","title":{"rendered":"Every Disaster a Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s location within \u201cthe Ring of Fire\u201d, the Defense Force (TNI) would concentrate more on \u201cmilitary operations other than war\u201d rather than focusing defense outlays beefing up its on strike forces. \u201cProfessionalism\u201d of the military in the narrow sense was out of the question anyway since the \u201ctotal defense and security\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Now that the Indonesian Government is now simultaneously undertaking recovery and rehabilitation problems following the earthquake in Yogyakarta and Central Java of May 27 (6000 plus dead), the recent tsunami of July 17 in West and Central Java (550 plus dead), followed by the recent July 23 quake in Gorontalo in Sulawesi, the TNI is again gearing up to prepare its limited resources to deal with yet another natural disaster.<\/p>\n


\nNever have the role of the TNI been more crucial and more pertinent than at the present time. Despite being underpaid, under equipped and chronically under-funded, I have never been so proud of the tireless efforts of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in being always first on the scene in each of these natural disasters. The exemplary behaviour of soldiers, non-coms and officers of all three services attest to the adage that the Indonesian Defense Force is always \u201cfirst in war, first in peace and first in emergency relief efforts.\u201d Indeed, many domestic and foreign observers acknowledge that the TNI is the mainstay of the government\u2019s delivery system crucial to the success of the emergency response coordinated by the government through the office of the Vice President.<\/p>\n

But every new crisis brings a silver lining. There are always new ways for the TNI soldiers, sailors and airmen to improvise aid efforts, new methods of coordination arising from the esprit de corps that come from every emergency situation. There are always efficiency measures thrust upon units of the TNI as each logistical problem arises on the ground.<\/p>\n

I have always explained to my foreign colleagues about the ways and means of improvisation that the common Indonesian soldier comes up with since the days immediately after the tsunami of December 26, 2004. Some colleagues abroad criticise that the total defense and security doctrine is \u201cout of date\u201d and that it hampers professionalism. But I maintain that the TNI never sought to submit itself to the notion of the dead hand of \u201cprofessionalism\u201d in the Western sense. In fact, total defense and security is never going to be out of date. You only have to ask the villagers in West and Central Java. And the people in Gorontalo. For every crisis brings out the best in the TNI non-military role. Saving lives and giving hope is (military) professionalism at its best.. There are going to be more dangers, yes. But there are also opportunities, too. Every crisis is a challenge.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s location within \u201cthe Ring of Fire\u201d, the Defense Force (TNI) would concentrate more on \u201cmilitary operations other than war\u201d rather than focusing defense outlays beefing up its on strike forces. \u201cProfessionalism\u201d of the military in the narrow sense was out of the question anyway since the \u201ctotal defense and security\u201d 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juwonosudarsono.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}