Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – With globalization favoring certain groups over others within Indonesia's 33 provinces, its population and administration should work hand in hand to reduce inequality and poverty, former defense minister Juwono Sudarsono says.

In an interview here last week, the University of Indonesia's professor of politics and international relations said the most dangerous threat to Indonesia that could tear it apart within 10 to 15 years was discontent stemming from failed development, caused by the widening of economic inequality and increasing poverty levels.

"We can't imagine any countries would attack us nowadays. That's why we can focus our spending on strengthening our social and economic condition. However, as I always said, we must maintain the technological disparity of our military equipment with our neighbors," he said.

If Singapore, for instance, has F-16 jet fighters or submarines then Indonesia also must have F-16s or submarines albeit less of them, so that our neighbors still respect Indonesia's defense capabilities.

With the defense budget totalling Rp 42 trillion this year, a number of observers have said the amount is far from enough to support even basic defense for such a big country.

"We must accept that overcoming disparities in development, fighting corruption at all levels of bureaucracy, and reducing poverty are our main focus rather than the procurement of military equipment.

"After all, we believe that in the final analysis, social justice is a nation's best defense," he said.

Today 34 million Indonesians live on less than US$2 a day, with another 7.5 million openly unemployed, Juwono said.

Access to basic human needs – clean water, healthcare, adequate housing, affordable electricity – is also limited to 10 percent of the population, namely the 25 million Indonesians whose annual income is above $2,000, he said.

Horizontal disparities were in many ways more apparent, with 85 percent of the population living in Western Indonesia and only 15 percent residing east of Bali, he said.

Juwono said disparity and poverty would ultimately create discontent resulting in questioning the central government or even seeking secession through violence or even terrorism.

"One defends the rule of law because one's particular station in life has made it convenient and expedient to be 'part of the system' and one's economic, social and cultural foundations are already sound and secure," he said.

While poverty in itself did not necessarily lead to violent extremes of behavior, its scale and acuteness could often be used by a small minority of misguided extremists to justify violent behavior in defending the destitute and desperate, Juwono said.

"The scope and pace of poverty reduction will affect the manner in which we implement ground-level social binding and peace building," he said.