Military Profesionalism Is The Key To Support National Development Amid TNI’s Neutrality In Spotlight
Latest, analysts and public have expressed deep concern about the military profesionalism amid the latest moves by military general. According to Mufti Makarim, Director of the Institute for Defense and Security Studies said that for ethical reasons, the commander of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) Lt. Gen. Edy Rahmayadi, who will be participated North Sumatera gubernatorial race slated for June 27, 2018, should leave his position before registering with the General Elections Committee (KPU).
Voicing similiar concern, University of Indonesia (UI) military analyst, Edy Prasetyono has proposed banning military officers from entering politics until years after retirement.
“Such a rule was needed if the military, really wanted to reform itself. However, military reform is a requisite to ensure civilians are protected from the military power and the military from political authority,” he further argued.
Previously, TNI commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo has triggered a firestrom of criticism for what they believe is his attempt to abuse his position to gain political support before the 2019 presidential election. Gatot has denied the accusation, saying he is focusing on grooming a successor. “The military would remain politically neutral ahead of the 2018 regional elections and the 2019 general election.
Gatot reasserted the TNI would remain neutral when dealing with practical politics and would only get involved in “state politics” as referred to in the military code Sapta Marga and the soldier’s oath.
He explained that the principles comprised the TNI’s absolute loyalty to Indonesia, state-ideology Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution, abiding the national law, as well as serving the interestsof the people and the nation above all else.
Meanwhile, in his speech during the TNI’s ceremony, President Joko Widodo made the warning once more. “The TNI must neither be devided by political interests nor involved in practical politics,” Jokowi said. Jokowi in his capacity as the commander in chief of the armed forces further asserted that to be loyal to the state was to be faithful to the legitimate government.
Previously, the military has been separated from the civilian sphere by the 2000 People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree on military-police separation. This separation was aimed at keeping the military out of civilian affairs to make the force more professional by allowing it to focus on state defense.
Being admitted or not, military reluctant to stay in the barracks. Politically and essentially, if the military don’t reluctant the people’s wish, its could military have a lot of time to think and to make strategic strategy boosting and leveraging their capacity to protect and to guard national development and national interest from whatever efforts to break it.
Strategically, the TNI’s must be continued their internal reform including to formulating the break down of their main duty in the global and digital era right now, because actually the TNI’s has many of an urgent and strategic duties to protect the country through detecting anyever threat which can be created or lightered in the global and digital era such as the foreign military attacks through technical military devices, to surveillance and to protect our ocean and open sky from anyever foreign threat and an infiltration, keeping the outskirts and ahead of Indonesian islands through regularly the air forces patrol, the navy patrol and the army patrol, to secure the process of an infrastructure development in many of provinces, to oversee areas smuggle prone (arms smuggling, people smuggling, drugs smuggling, and illegal economic activies) which has been occuring at borderland areas in Indonesia, combating and conquering terrorism and separatism threats through a close cooperation and coordination among the security apparatus in Indonesia and to improve the capacity of military intelligent through minimalizing the involvement of military on the civilian intelligent.
However, staying away from non-defense matters will help TNI focused on its primary duty protecting the nation from external threats. Keeping a political role to a minimum including the successful of TNI reform will place TNI on the right track towards a world-class military force. Hopefully.
*) Herdiansyah Rahman, Senior observer at the strategic issues. Lives in Jakarta.
