Two and a half years after the House of Representatives passed landmark legislation to improve the accountability of the Indonesian military (TNI), reform is stalled. High-level political leadership is needed to give the reform drive a much-needed boost.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono needs to accelerate the full implementation of the changes mandated in the 2004 TNI law (Law 34/2004) to help reform the armed forces. The president has rightly instructed the TNI leadership to continue internal reforms, but currently there is no momentum for positive change.
The government has yet to adopt regulations to implement the TNI law's important provisions that ban military business activities and require the Indonesian government to take over all military businesses by 2009. Earlier this month one official announced that a draft presidential decree implementing the law was awaiting the president's signature, only to be contradicted by another official, who said the palace had sent the draft decree back for revisions.
This back-and-forth, and the lack of a clear deadline to produce a new text, shows that government officials are in no hurry to act. This is also evident from the draft proposal, which envisioned the creation of a new body that would take over the task of transforming military businesses currently assigned to an inter-ministerial team. That move could further delay action to assert government control over the military's enterprises.
Moreover, the draft proposal outlines numerous exceptions that would allow many businesses to remain with the military, which would render the reforms meaningless. In the meantime, the absence of clear rules has meant that sales, transfers, or closures of military businesses have taken place without adequate oversight, contrary to the spirit of the TNI law.
What explains the delay and the incomplete nature of the government's plans so far? Indonesian officials were asked this question last year, when Human Rights Watch first issued a report on military finances. In meetings and in public statements, the officials offered a few unconvincing explanations.
First, they pleaded poverty, claiming that the government cannot yet afford to raise the official budget enough to make up for the income lost if the military is forced out of businesses. But this is false logic, since it wrongly assumes that the sprawling network of military-owned businesses bring in funds that greatly subsidize the official budget.
To the contrary, the official review of the businesses listed in a TNI inventory confirms that many are now facing collapse and present a potential liability. Years of mismanagement and corruption, coupled with a lack of reinvestment, have bled many TNI businesses dry.
In other words, keeping military businesses would do little to satisfy the military's desire for a larger budget and might even drain funds. So while there are reasons to have a serious debate about military finances overall, military business reform should not be held hostage to the military's desire for ever larger budgets.
Second, Indonesian officials repeatedly claimed that many of the military's enterprises serve mainly to benefit poorly-paid troops. The Indonesian government fails to provide for the basic needs of the troops, so they and their families are naturally grateful for any help they get with housing, healthcare and education costs. But the welfare support of military foundations and cooperatives has been vastly overstated. In many cases regular troops get only some small symbolic assistance, such as an annual holiday gift that is worth less than their contributions.
Research has repeatedly shown that these institutions become a front for illegal activity, not a vehicle to benefit rank-and-file soldiers. Studies published by Kontras and Human Rights Watch give examples showing that military pursuit of profits comes at the cost of community members' human rights.
Third, the Secretary-General of the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, Said Didu, who heads the inter-ministerial team assigned to supervise the handover of military businesses, said the task is one of the most difficult he has encountered. He has suggested it may not be complete by the 2009 deadline, considering the number of businesses to be reviewed -- more than 1500, according to a TNI inventory.
The dismantling of military business is undoubtedly complex, but the right approach is based on a very simple premise: money-making is incompatible with the military's proper role.
At times government planners also claim they lack the authority to take over most of the businesses, which are privately registered or owned via nominally-independent foundations or cooperatives. However, the TNI law clearly demands that the government take over all businesses owned and operated, whether directly or indirectly, by the military.
Some officials, usually in private, also argue that it is unfair to demand the military make changes that are not being imposed across the board on all government ministries. They voice special resentment that the Indonesian Police (Polri), which also has many business interests, is not currently subject to a legal mandate to give these up. A separate initiative to tackle police business would be welcome. But it would be nonsense to delay much-needed military reform until the police are subject to a parallel requirement.
Taming the military is admittedly a tall order in Indonesia. Yet if the government is going to make good on its reform agenda -- and honor the law -- it must show the will to act. There is no good reason why the government has to leave everything in military hands while it sorts through the scores of businesses the TNI has acknowledged it owns.
Usman Hamid is the Executive Director of Kontras (the Commission for "Disappeared" Persons and Victims of Violence), which published a 2005 research report on military business and human rights. Lisa Misol, a Senior Researcher at Human Rights Watch, is the author of a June 2006 report on military self-finance and human rights that the group dedicated to the late Munir. The bahasa Indonesia translation of the HRW report is now available at www.hrw.org/indonesian.
