Armando Siahaan, Jakarta – The president's pick to lead the military will appear today before lawmakers expecting to hear his plans for the armed forces.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has proposed the current chief of staff of the Navy, Vice Adm. Agus Suhartono, to replace Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) Chief Gen. Djoko Santoso, who is retiring. But he must first be confirmed by the House of Representatives.
"What we're looking for is a vision and a commitment from the chief that can foster the TNI's grand agenda," said Mahfudz Siddiq, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman of House Commission I, which oversees security affairs and which is in charge of the so-called fit-and-proper test for Agus.
Mahfudz said the next TNI chief had to be able to follow through on the military's ongoing reforms. "He must be able to solve the TNI's problem with business asset ownership," he said.
Under the ongoing reforms, the military is required to shed its businesses and foundations, and will only be permitted to hold onto core military-related enterprises. In the past, the TNI's business assets were opaque and a major source of undeclared revenue.
Mahfudz said the new chief's top priority should be to improve the welfare of soldiers. "There are still soldiers living in poor conditions. This could affect their level of professionalism," he said.
He also said there was a need to restructure the military forces. "The TNI has always been a huge organization, which creates high costs," he said.
Mahfudz said that to become an effective organization, the TNI needed to be streamlined.
TB Hasanuddin, a deputy chairman of the commission from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said he wanted the next TNI chief to ensure the creation of a military court, a long-stalled part of the reform agenda
"This has not been touched at all by previous TNI chiefs, while according to the law, it should have been completed in 2009," he said.
Hasanuddin also called for better discipline within the TNI, particularly among the rank-and-file. "There are still fights between soldiers and robberies committed by TNI personnel. This needs to be fixed," he said.
The new chief, he said, must ensure soldiers maintain the highest level of professionalism. "There are still airplane accidents, or that case where a soldier died carrying explosive ingredients," he said.
Hasanuddin also said the new chief must avoid talk of giving soldiers back the right to vote. "Recently, we've seen this idea mooted, that TNI members could vote again. This is not right, the law already bars them from doing so," he said.