Concerns are being raised that Indonesia's military is once again in the political driver's seat. After the fall of president Suharto in May 1998, and the first free election of a president in 33 years, initial steps were taken to reform the armed forces. But, the promise to return the army to the barracks, to become a professional force, seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Presenter/Interviewer: Kanaha Sabapathy

Speakers: Military analyst Professor Salim Said; Professor Bob Lowry from the Australian Defence Studies Centre

Sabapathy: Under president Suharto's dwifungsi or dual function the Indonesian armed forces or TNI functioned as a security cum political force. But that was supposed to have changed when Indonesians elected their first president in 33 years.

On taking power in late 1999 president Abdurrahman Wahid moved to reform the TNI and worked to return the military to the barracks. In an effort to curb the military's power especially, president Wahid introduced the scheme whereby the leadership of the TNI would between the army, navy and airforce.

But last month president Megawati Sukarnoputri overlooked this plan and chose to replace outgoing Admiral Widodo Adisucipto with army chief Endriartono Sutarto. Military analyst Professor Salim Said.

Said: The fact that Megawati did not follow the tradition established by Adbullarah Manwani clearly show that Megawati is accomodating the army and not the other services.

Sabapathy: Professor Said who is doing research into the social and political role of the military lays the blame for the re-emergence of the military's fortunes on the lap of the politicians.

Said: The political parties are going away from their ideas of reforming the military. There are several reasons for that. One of the reasons is that Indonesian society is a fragmented society and this fragment is competing to have the military on their side.

Another reason is that you can only have a professional military if you have enough party heads for them. The Indonesian military is I think one out of only several which since the beginning of its history was never fully financed by the government. So it had to find about sixty to seventy percent of its budget.

Lowry: If they want to establish civilian control over the military, then obviously they have to figure out how they can raise the taxes that are necessary to pay not only the military but other government agencies as well.

Sabapathy: Professor Bob Lowry is from the Australian Defence Studies Centre in Canberra. He says current legislation gives the police responsibility for security with the right to call in the military if they need assistance. But this requires certain pre-conditions.

Lowry: The police have got to show that they are capable of fulfilling the commander control requirements and integrating the military successfully into their operations. The main thing is to make sure that the military remains beholdent to the rule of law in the country.

Sabapathy: But herein lies a basic problem. The police has shown its inability to control the situation in places like Ambon and Aceh, inevitably enforcing the military's stance that it alone can hold the Indonesian archipelago from disintegrating.

Said: The fact that the military is "controlling" the situation in Ambon and used to be in East Timor and is still in Aceh, shows that the civilian government cannot not and is not fully controlling the military.

Sabapathy: So what's the remedy? After 32 years of military dictatorship, the civilian society does not have enough knowledge or information on how to control the military or for that matter manage the security situation. But Professor Lowry says there's a way, but one for the long term.

Lowry: Generate a larger government budget to start paying the public agencies properly. If it can create the conditions which will foster economic growth and if the experiment was reasonable then it is quite possible that internal security will improve quite markedly and the role of the military can be really wound back.

Said: Do not expect the military to reform themselves. You need a strong and legitimate government to do that. In the beginning we had a strong and legitimate government in Abdurrahman Wahid, but Abdurrahman Wahid wasted his time, his opportunity. Now we have a weak government under Megawati.