Military Politics in Pandemic Indonesia

Asia Times. October 21, 2005

2020

This study aims to determine the background of the emergence of the military as a political force in Indonesia. The method used is the historical method by performing four stages, namely: heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The results showed that the occurrence of regional upheaval that wanted to separate from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia during the Old Order era, as a form of disappointment with the central government, was considered by the military as a threat to the integrity and sovereignty of the nation and state. Therefore, the military considers the need for a political concept and strategy to overcome this. So the concept of an army middle ground was initiated by Abdul Haris Nasution which in turn gave birth to Dwifungsi. As the embodiment of Dwifungsi, the military seeks to ward off threats that come from within and outside. With the enactment of a state of danger or martial law law, the military will increasingly carry out its political functions by keeping in view the state situation at that time.

Asia Centre, Paris, 2019

Is there a growing militarization of Indonesian democracy? This article argues that at this point, the military as an organization does not willingly and independently interfere in civilian affairs. Rather, the military’s involvement should be put in its context, notably the weaknesses of successive civilian governments, especially Joko Widodo administration, that forces it to ask for the military for support; personal ambition of General Gatot Nurmantyo, the Chief of the Military, who was using the military as a tool for promoting himself for the Presidential Election of 2019; and the institutional weaknesses of the military itself, that created the condition for the involvement of the military in political affairs.

2001

, with a thesis titled, "ASEAN as an aspect of Indonesian foreign policy." Her research interests include ASEAN political and security issues, Indonesian foreign policy, and the political role of the Indonesian military.

Journal of Contemporary Asia, 2019

This article seeks to explain the increasingly regressive (or illiberal) behaviour on the part of the Indonesian military. It focuses on the expansion of the Army's Territorial Command structure, the growing military intrusion into civilian polity and the stunted progress of military professionalism. It provides an organisational, rather than political, perspective. Conceptually, the article synthesises various approaches to comparative politics to explain why and how military personnel policies affect political behaviour. Empirically, using a series of original datasets of hundreds of officers, the article demonstrates how promotional logjams-too many officers but too few positions available-over the past decade help explain the regressive behaviours we recently witnessed. It is further argued that the lack of institutionalisation in personnel policies gave rise to and prolonged these logjams. This article draws attention to the importance of intra-organisational dynamics in understanding the state of civil-military relations in post-authoritarian Indonesia.

2015

The Indonesian military appears to be taking advantage of a weak president and unpopular police to try and regain some of the internal security functions that it lost as part of the country’s democratisation process. Introduction Since Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) took office in October 2014, the actions of the police have triggered widespread public condemnation, with much less attention to the role of the Indonesian military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, TNI). Both institutions seem to be testing the political waters to see how far they can push their authority in the face of a weak president with little experience in security affairs. The TNI, in particular, seems to be having some success, with its commander, Gen. Moeldoko, as the driving force. The imbroglio beginning in January 2015 surrounding Jokowi’s nomination of a police chief known for his unusual wealth led public confidence in the police as an institution to sink to new lows. Police efforts to weaken the r...

2009

This paper outlines the history of the military in Indonesia and its role in politics, as well as in perpetrating violence. Since its inception at the time of Indonesian independence, the military has had a defined role in both defence and politics, particularly during the Sukarno (1945-1965) and Suharto eras (1966-1998). While this role has been somewhat reduced in the Reform era (beginning mid-1998) through various stages of military reform, many of the underlying principles of the involvement of the military in politics still remain in reality. Given the historical dual roles of the military, it has been able to set agendas and perpetrate violence without civilian oversight. In Papua, this has led to various acts of violence perpetrated by the military and the police, often tapping into local ethno-religious relations. However, this has been less overt than the violence occurring in Aceh.

RSIS Working Paper, 2009

This paper tries to explain the political behaviour of military organizations within the context of civil-military relations. The key purpose is to extract several key variables that could serve as a starting theoretical model for future research on Southeast Asian militaries and political armies in general. This would be done by analysing four distinct cases of political behaviours of the Indonesian military in its relations with the president. This paper aims to answer why these distinct behaviours occur, how they came about, and under what conditions would they be observed. This paper finds that the political behaviours of military organizations can be at least typologized into four distinct categories that depart from the traditional literature: regime spoiler, critical regime partner, uncritical regime partner, and regime pawn. This paper also finds that several variables could help explain such behaviours. First, internal military variables: the military's self-conception and portrayal of the "national interests"; the degree of military unity and cohesion; and the institutional and individual interests of the key military leadership. Second, variables within the political leadership: the degree of civilian interference in internal military affairs, civilian strength vis-à-vis the military, and civilian handling of the domestic political condition. However, how all these variables interact, the degree of significance of each variable, and how they shape the military's political behaviour would eventually have to depend on the national political, economic, security and social conditions of the specific time of the case at hand.

Foreign Policy Review, 2021

This paper examines Indonesia's foreign policy regarding the handling of the global COVID-19 pandemic. As the third most populous country in Asia after China and India, Indonesia has taken strategic steps to handle COVID-19, looking after its citizens both within the country and abroad. The study shows that Indonesia's foreign policy is carried out through the Alliance for Multilateralism. First, Indonesian citizens abroad are protected by the Indonesian government with the help of large-scale repatriation, especially in countries that have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, the Indonesian government encourages the strengthening of governance within the global health framework by supporting the policies of the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, Indonesia cooperates with various countries, both regionally and multilaterally, in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The factors that influence Indonesia's foreign policy regarding the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic include Indonesia's national interests and the international political situation. These have characterized foreign policy implementation under President Joko Widodo during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Indonesian military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, TNI) continues to press for an expanded role in internal security, driven by distrust of civilian politicians, contempt for the police and the conviction that Indonesia is facing hostile powers using proxies to attack it through non-military means. “The TNI’s concept of ‘proxy war’ turns an international threat into a domestic danger and therefore justifies a military role at home ,” says Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC). “Everything from the haze crisis to gay rights advocacy becomes evidence of foreign enemies bent on weakening Indonesian from within.”