Robert Go, Jakarta – Going along with Washington's anti-terror campaign – including pushing the government to enact its own anti-terror law – brings Indonesia's armed forces (TNI) one step closer towards re-establishing full military ties with the US.
Kudos and financial rewards are trickling in after Indonesian generals began talking tough on terror issues and admitting that there may be Al-Qaeda ties here.
For instance, the TNI received US$400,000 last month to aid sending officers to the International Military Education and Training (Imet) course in the United States. The sum is a drop in the bucket when compared to how much the US has injected towards supporting the TNI since the 1950s.
But it was the first round of funding sent by Washington for military purposes since 1999, when ties were suspended after much of East Timor was destroyed by thugs backed and trained by the TNI. It is also the first direct aid for Indonesian participation in Imet since the 1991 Santa Cruz killings, when troops fired on pro-independence East Timorese.
As University of Indonesia analyst Arbi Sanit saw it: "The TNI is happy. That cash is a symbolic gesture that promises more aid and cooperation in the future." Another key issue is how the 1999 Leahy Amendment – which demanded TNI reforms on human-rights issues before resumption of military ties – seems to lose teeth as Indonesia walks Washington's anti-terror talk.
US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Washington's envoy to Jakarta in the late 1980s, has defended the TNI with regards to Indonesia's poor progress in prosecuting human-rights cases. "We are quite disappointed with what seems to be a lack of vigour and energy in prosecuting some of the past abuses," he said in Washington last month. "But it is a mistake to accuse the entire military indiscriminately".
Human rights activists warn that the anti-terror law could be used by the TNI to crackdown on separatists, and by the government to silence its political opponents.
Establishing an anti-terror law would win Indonesia Washington's good graces. But if the political will to implement its provisions does not exist, having this or any other law is no guarantee radicals planning attacks and who may maintain ties with Al-Qaeda will end up in jail.
Said a Jakarta-based foreign consultant said: "The crucial question has to be whether or not an anti-terror law would be successful within the climate of legal uncertainty that now prevails in Indonesia."