Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – Before the full glare of television cameras this month, Indonesian army chief Gen Ryamizard Ryacudu walked toward a line of 20 soldiers and tore one-by-one the badges of rank from their uniforms.
These soldiers were stripped of their rank and dismissed at a ceremony in Medan in North Sumatra, northwestern Indonesia, on October 2 because they had attacked a police station after officers refused to release a civilian friend of theirs who had been detained for drug possession.
Late on September 29, more than 100 soldiers from an army airborne battalion attacked a police post in Binjai district in Medan, about 1,350 kilometers northwest of Jakarta, using rifles, grenades and mortars. The nine-hour shootout left six policemen, one soldier and one civilian dead, and 23 bystanders wounded.
"What you have done has had a disastrous impact on the army. It's not you alone who should be held responsible for this, but the military. You acted not as the army but as security disturbers. You embarrassed and sullied the face of the Indonesian armed forces," Ryamizard said at the ceremony.
The incident underscores the growing conflict between the police and military over what even military chief General Endriartono Sutarto concedes are rival criminal interests between the two forces.
Agus Mulya, a security expert working at a private security company in Jakarta, said it is widespread knowledge that the military and the police back dirty businesses, "but seeing that it has led to such a brutal gang war, it surprises many. Everybody is surprised. Now they cannot distinguish between the military, the police and criminal groups," he said.
The tussle between the police and the military has been growing in the years after Suharto was ousted in 1998, as the military searches for a new role in a more open society where its traditional power base has diminished from the Suharto decades. The military has had a political role listed in the constitution, but changes are under way that are reducing its representation in the legislature and undercutting their wide powers in local governments and restive territories.
The police, for their part, are flexing their muscles with new powers they got after being removed from the military command.
This erosion of the military's power has also meant fewer opportunities to indulge in various businesses and foundations that it has run for more than five decades, and an increase in illegal businesses from prostitution, poaching and logging to narcotics.
For instance, Binjai, the district in the Aceh-North Sumatra provincial border – where the soldiers' attack took place last month to get a drug suspect freed – is known as the first stop in the marijuana trade from Aceh province, where marijuana is traditionally used as a cooking spice. Officials say marijuana is trafficked by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) as a way of funding its insurgency, and by criminal groups – invariably with the backing of the military or the police.
The September attack adds pressure on the military and the police to put an end to their business operations. "They should focus on security matters. Business is not their domain," said Agus.
Many of the business operations the military and the police have been running are legal, if questionable in the eyes of political critics. Often, however, the businesses – for instance the military controls more than a million hectares of forest concessions in Kalimantan province – do not always get fully audited. But these have been growing – and stretching into dubious sectors such as prostitution and gambling – as an independent way of funding their existence. Some officers who name themselves the foundations' directors are also "getting the windfall" from these foundations, according to a state audit body official.
General Endriartono said he does not support illegal businesses, but the military's presence in legitimate business on the side has its own justification: "The government is unable to meet the military budget, so we have to do something to deal with it."
The military's yearly budget stands at US$1.06 billion, less than one-fourth of the $4.4 billion military budget of Singapore, a city-state of 4 million people compared with Indonesia's 220 million population. The Indonesian military's budget also compares badly with such smaller nations as Thailand ($2 billion), the Philippines ($1.3 billion), and Malaysia ($1.6 billion).
The low funds mean that soldiers are paid poorly. The wages of mid-ranking soldiers range from Rp540,000-850,000 ($60-$95), while high-ranking officers earn Rp1.6 million to 4.5 million ($110-$350) a month. As a result, "many of our members have to do odd jobs. Some of them engage in ojek [motorbike taxi] jobs to cover their living," said Endriartono. "It is a breach of the rules, but we let them do the jobs as long as it is does not involve criminal behavior."
"I am a soldier. But I am not ashamed to be an ojek driver, because this is the only way I can support my family," said army Sergeant Rahmat in central Jakarta.
In a cabinet meeting this month, Endriartono turned down President Megawati Sukarnoputri's request to dissolve the foundations that allow the military to legally run businesses. "It is not realistic – the government is only able to meet 30 percent of our budget and then they ask us to abandon our businesses," he said.
But analysts ask whether the military's businesses have really improved the soldiers' standard of living after all these decades. "The military has engaged in business for a long time. Where does the money go?" said Malik Haramain, a political-science lecturer at the University of Indonesia.
During Suharto's 32-year rule, he said, "The military enjoyed privileges and acquired various business concessions in construction, timber, hotels and transport. But the living standards of soldiers are just the same."