Jakarta – The government plans to coordinate all three branches of the Indonesian Military (TNI) next year, the defense minister said Monday.
The Navy, Army and Air Force will work on one task timeframe and towards one long-term target in order to create an efficient and effective military.
"The 2002 Law on State Defense requires an integrated strategic defense plan that considers the configuration of the archipelagic country, and I proposed the plan to the President in April 2005," Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said.
"Accordingly, I have determinedly composed that plan, which encompasses all of the Navy, the Army and the Air Force," he added.
Speaking at his office after hosting a whistle-stop visit from the Philippines' Navy chief of staff, Vice Admiral Rogelio I Calunsag Afp, Juwono said the synchronization was part of the nation's strategic plan to achieve efficient and effective coordination within the branches.
Juwono said the ministry was initially prioritizing policy formulation for the defense strategic plan, before moving toward its implementation.
The minister said he foresaw no problems in implementing the synchronization program, which has already been introduced to the TNI chief of staff for general affairs and each branch chiefs' assistants for planning and logistics affairs.
Every branch would have similar vehicles, airplanes and ships to carry out their tasks efficiently, he said. "If one (mobile) unit can be utilized by two or more branches for efficiency's sake, why don't we do it?" he asked.
On Feb. 28, 2003, the government launched a white paper on defense strategy, which called for maintaining the military's much-criticized territorial function.
The white paper, authored by the Defense Ministry, described various threats facing the country in the 21st century, including separatist movements, terrorism, piracy, illegal logging and people trafficking.
According to Maj. Gen. Sudrajat, a former Defense Ministry director general for defense strategy, the TNI's territorial function is still needed to strengthen the country's defense.
Legislator Yuddy Chrisnandi of the Golkar Party, however, said the ministry should revise the white paper into a blueprint for the country's strategic defense plan.
"The current blueprint only dictates problems and shortcomings, instead of (setting the) defense strategy that must be carried out," Monday's edition of Kompas quoted him as saying on Sunday.
Meanwhile, military observer Andi Widjajanto said earlier that Indonesia would be helpless if it faced a large-scale conflict against major countries in the region.
"The strategic plan issued by the Defense Ministry indicates that until 2014, Indonesia will not have sufficient power projection capabilities to exercise military influence beyond its own territory," he said. "This reality gives rise to one strategic option: diplomacy as the first line of defense," he added.
According to the strategic plan, from 2004 to 2009 the government will try to close the gap between the current force level and the requirements laid out for minimal essential forces.
From 2009 to 2014, the country's force structure will meet the minimal essential force requirements. Only after 2014 will the government try to move beyond the minimal essential force architecture and design a new defense system to meet the challenges of the 21st century.