John B. Haseman – Indonesia's difficult transition from autocracy to democracy is almost five years old. The huge and disparate country struggles with economic, social and political problems that have proved far more difficult than expected.
Likewise, Indonesia's military – its most powerful and cohesive institution – is struggling to find its role in an emerging democracy.
Indonesia's civilian institutions receive a variety of assistance in the form of international loans, educational programmes and advice to assist in the transition from autocracy to democracy. But the military – the Tentara Nasional Indonesia , or TNI – has received little outside help in its reform process.
Make no mistake, the TNI has much to answer for. For instance, it was implicated in supporting brutal violence in East Timor, and recently former senior TNI officers were indicted in Dili. The TNI leadership thus far has failed to come to terms with this legacy and account for the misdeeds of a tiny handful of its personnel. Retention of good relations with the United States and other countries requires that the TNI punish those responsible for those incidents.
Why then should Western democracies, and specifically the United States, resume a meaningful relationship with the TNI? The answer is simple: It is in the basic national interests of both to do so. The US began tentative steps towards restoring its relationship with the TNI after the terrorist attacks in the US dramatically changed the strategic world environment. The instrument chosen is restoration of funding for the International Military Education and Training programme, or Imet. This programme provides for the training of foreign military personnel in US military schools, where they sit side by side with their American counterparts for periods ranging from three months to a year or more.
Imet is arguably the most cost-effective instrument for military-to-military contacts the US has. Should the US resume the programme for the TNI, the immediate result would be to provide sorely needed management expertise to TNI personnel. More importantly, however, Imet is an effective programme for exposing TNI officers to key concepts about the role of the military in a democratic society, the system of civilian control of armed forces and the importance of human rights in both domestic strife and international conflict. These are exactly the requirements that Indonesia's much-criticized military needs to move forward with efforts at reform and increased professionalism.
The TNI is an inward-looking force that lacks extensive experience with the outside world. It has a low percentage of officers with higher degrees and the level of broad understanding that comes with advanced-education programmes. Isolation has not helped the military to reform, nor has it supported US strategic interests in the region.
But it is not all bad news. Many of the officers trained under the Imet programme remain in Indonesia's government, filling key cabinet and parliamentary posts. They have successfully implemented many military reforms, begun a hopeful political settlement to violence in Aceh and gave early warning about international terrorists in Indonesia. These men have been able to moderate policies of more doctrinaire officers and contain hardline efforts to reverse many important reforms in the TNI. Overseas education and international exposure has made a difference.
Ending Imet funding for Indonesia in 1993 has reaped an unfortunate legacy – a generation of senior officers with scant knowledge of the world beyond Indonesia, and little first-hand understanding of the role of the armed forces in a democratic society. Within the TNI headquarters itself, there are only two Imet-trained senior officers, and precious few younger officers with international experience remain on active duty. A country struggling with human-rights problems and accountability needs more outside education and training, not less. As a senior US diplomat told me: "Imet is the best investment we can make in long-term grass-roots democratic values for the TNI."
Restoring Imet training will help the TNI to modernize and reform, and assist the US in meeting its strategic objectives in Asia. Overseas training by itself is not guaranteed to change the minds of its graduates or the policies of a country. But it does create friendships and professional contacts that endure for decades. Both Indonesia and the US need those friendships.
[The writer is a retired US Army colonel who served in Indonesia between 1978 and 1994, the last four years as US defence and army attache. He has written extensively on Indonesian political-military affairs, most recently as co-author with Angel Rabasa on The Military and Democracy in Indonesia: Challenges, Politics, and Power.]