Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces mark their 53rd anniversary on Monday amid one of their toughest battles to date – the fight to restore their honour as a defender and not oppressor of the people.
Following the resignation of former president Suharto in May, the armed forces (ABRI) have been besieged by revelations of human rights violations spanning his 32-year rule. The list includes the kidnapping and torture of political activists, mass killings in the restive province of Aceh, and the killing of four students during a demonstration in May-- an incident that helped spark riots in the capital which left 1,200 dead and added to the pressure on Suharto to quit.
President B.J. Habibie and armed forces chief General Wiranto have offered unprecedented apologies for past military abuses, and military operations in Aceh and Irian Jaya have been ended. Indonesia says all combat troops have been pulled out of East Timor, where it has also faced a separatist insurgency.
The hated Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto, son-in-law of Suharto, has been discharged from the army after a probe into the abduction and torture of activists, and Wiranto has promised reform. But analysts say the abuses of the past still haunt ABRI. "They are under attack from civilians and the international community because of their human rights violations," said independent military analyst Salim Said. Indonesia's Human Rights Commission says the revelations have called the military's legitimacy into question. "Its legitimacy is on the line because it cannot claim any democratic role, for it needs to account for the past violations," said commission vice-chairman Marzuki Darusman.
In a recent poll by the Centre for the Study of Development and Democracy, 46.5 percent of respondents said they did not believe the military was really protecting the people, against 39.1 percent who believed it was.
Students have stepped up demonstrations in recent weeks calling for the military to end its so-called "dual function" which gives it a significant political as well as security role, with unelected seats in parliament and senior cabinet positions. "We want ABRI to end its involvement in social and political affairs," said student Trisutiadi of the University of Indonesia.
A draft law on the structure of parliament has proposed reducing ABRI's representation to 55 seats from 75, in an expanded parliament of 550 members, up from 500 at present. ABRI's parliamentary leader, Lieutenant-General Hari Sabarno, says the military would accept parliament's decision.
Lieutenant-General Agum Gumelar, governor of the National Resilience Institute, a military think tank, said the military was making efforts to respond to the people's desire for reform but this would take time. "These accusations are based on the people's desire for ABRI to be better than before," he said.
Wiranto has tried to shield his men by urging Indonesians to stop condemning the army, saying its past mistakes were not a consequence of military policy but an inevitable result of the previous political regime in the country of more than 200 million people.
He said soldiers were also human and many had died while maintaining security in the country. "They are also suffering, with their small salaries which have not been raised despite the current monetary crisis," he told a recent parliament meeting. "But do you see them holding demonstrations to protest against their fate?"
According to a military spokesman, regular soldiers' salaries, excluding the basic food they are provided, are less than the country's minimum wages, which vary between districts. He declined to give any figure. The Jakarta minimum wage is 198,500 rupiah ($18) a month.
Political analyst Soedjati Djiwandono said soldiers' salaries were "inhuman," and Darusman warned of the possibility of increasing desertions due to economic hardship. "It is a very human problem – soldiers having to make ends meet for their families," he said.
According to Said, ABRI was serious in reforming itself and was likely to take on a reduced role in day-to-day politics. "They have no choice. This is what the people want," he said. But a senior military source disagreed, saying he doubted ABRI would give up its dual function. "ABRI is very stubborn... they will not give up the foundation of their power," he said.
He said ABRI's dual function applied mainly to the land forces. "The navy and air force have no opportunity for political power. They stick to social and security matters." In order to redeem itself, the army needed to show that it was no longer merely a tool of the government, Said said. "Suharto used ABRI as a tool to keep himself in power. If ABRI can demonstrate it is not the tool of the government, it will regain the respect of the people," he said.