Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reiterated his call Thursday for the once all-powerful military to press ahead with internal reform and to respect democracy.
"Continue the reform process and respect democracy," Yudhoyono said in a speech during a ceremony marking the Indonesian Military (TNI)'s 61st anniversary.
"Democracy must continue to blossom and strengthen along with the establishment of the rule of law and a government that is free from corruption and other ills," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Indonesia has expressed concern about last month's bloodless military coup in Thailand and urged its fellow ASEAN nation to return to democracy.
Yudhoyono said the armed forces needed to improve and modernize their defense capabilities to deal with security problems at home, as well as external threats, although this would have to be done gradually in line with economic reality.
The military was heavily involved in politics and widely accused of human rights abuses during the 32-year autocratic rule of former president Soeharto. Since Soeharto's fall amid political unrest in 1998, the military has seen its wings clipped and has been under pressure to abandon its lucrative business ventures.
The TNI has also been forced to relinquish its once-influential dual function role that enabled its members to assume positions in the civilian bureaucracy, as well as political positions.
Yudhoyono said Indonesia must be strong militarily and economically so as to be "a dignified nation respected by other nations of the world". Yudhoyono, himself a former general, won Indonesia's first direct presidential election in 2004 on reform pledges.
The President's repeated calls for military reform, however, ring hollow in the face of the sluggish pace of internal reform within the military. Thus far, the TNI has failed to implement Yudhoyono's plan to phase out its territorial commands in the regions, as mandated by the TNI Law.
The promised handover of TNI-run businesses to civilians has also stalled, with only a small number of minor-league companies currently being audited by the State Ministry for State Enterprises.
A report from a special team tasked with handling the handover of military-run companies estimated their aggregate value at only Rp 1 trillion (US$100 million), a minuscule figure that quickly drew howls of protest from critics, including lawmakers.
Another blow to the effort to reform the military surfaced recently with the defense minister, Juwono Sudarsono, rejecting calls of servicemen and women to be made subject to civilian jurisdiction in cases involving non-military crimes.
The minister argued that trying soldiers in the civilian courts could compromise the country's defense system as the judges would lack knowledge about the codes that governed the lives and conduct of military members.