Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – A group of high-ranking officers in Indonesia's armed forces have made unprecedented public criticism of the military's powers, including its role in civilian affairs.
Only days after the demotion in cabinet of the out-going armed forces chief, General Wiranto, 17 officers said the military's "pervasive" power prevented it from improving its professionalism.
Brigadier-General Saurip Kadi, a special investigator at the Ministry of Defence and Security, said that ending the military's dual role, or dwifungsi, was the only way to put an end to the "deviation of commands".
"Our forefathers never taught us to shoot real bullets at our own people," he said. Another of the officers said at the launch of a book in Jakarta that while the military's dual role in civilian affairs as well as the defence of the country was supposed to be temporary when the Dutch left Indonesia in the 1950s "it became institutionalised" and "officers grew to enjoy their positions".
Major-General Agus Wirahadikusumah urged the new armed forces (TNI) commander, Admiral Widodo, to purge the military's leadership of officers unworthy of their positions.
"I've asked Admiral Widodo to immediately reform the military's leadership ... to purge the status quo officers," he said.
The failure to accomplish this would make needed institutional reforms impossible and the military would continue to suffer from "weird" actions by its officers, Major-General Agus was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying. The 17 officers, all 1973 graduates from the Indonesian military academy, co-authored the book called the New Indonesia and the TNI's Challenge. Australian academic Harold Crouch, an expert on Indonesia's military, was also quoted by the newspaper as describing the officers' views as "extraordinary" but questioned the number and influence of reformist officers.
The credibility of the armed forces, traditionally Indonesia's most powerful institution, has been badly damaged by soldiers' atrocities in East Timor and other troubled regions like Aceh, the strongly Islamic province on the tip of Sumatra.
The military's sponsorship of violence, looting and destruction of property in East Timor will be investigated by the United Nations and Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights.
The new President, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, this week moved General Wiranto as head of the armed forces and defence minister to the less powerful job of co-ordinating minister for politics and security.
But swearing in ministers yesterday, Mr Wahid named General Wiranto as one of five architects of the cabinet that includes the first civilian defence minister in decades, Dr Juwono Sudarsono.
General Wiranto suggested appointing Dr Sudarsono, an academic with strong military links, after opposing the appointment of a serving officer at odds with him.
Mr Wahid, a Muslim cleric by background, called on ministers to live simple and honest lives. "On this cabinet lies the hope that democracy will really become a mark of our life in the future," he said. After the ceremony the new chief economics minister, Mr Kwik Kian Gie, said Indonesia would review its reform deal with the International Monetary Fund and focus its economic strategy on ending social and political unrest.
The IMF is leading a $68 billion international bailout package for Indonesia. The IMF and Asian Development Bank suspended new loans pending resolution of a banking scandal linked to Golkar, the former ruling party which had backed the failed candidacy of the previous president, Dr B.J. Habibie.
Some MPs want to call Dr Habibie before a parliamentary commission to question him about his involvement in the siphoning of about $100 million from the nationalised Bank Bali to a company linked to Golkar.