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Indonesian forces' corruption
exposed
By 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."
(Inter Press
Service)
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