No defense ministry and defense force in all of South East Asia has been subjected to more international scrutiny about its role in the life of the country than the Indonesian Defence Force (Tentara Nasional Indonesia). Since President Soeharto, a retired general, stepped down in May, 1998, the TNI reform process has been periodically in the forefront of news coverage by national and international media, none more so than the of the ”military businesses” owned, operated by or linked to any one of the tri-services, Army, Navy and Air Force.
Most domestic and foreign analysts, particularly NGOs, incessantly find fault with almost anything and everything the TNI (especially the army) did, is doing and will do in the future. The anti-military tone is partly in the nature of most NGOs anywhere, and is deeply rooted in the liberal western lexicon of “civilian supremacy” or “civilian control” and the predictable language of “transparency and accountability. Much of the reporting of the TNI__most recently revealed in the June 2006 Human Rights Watch Report entitled “Too High a Price: The Human rights Costs of the Indonesian Military’s Economic Activities” is coloured in the HRW report, the phraseology of which draws upon events that took place in Indonesia before May 1998.
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It's a measure of our times of political transition that the debate about Pancasila as state identity (dasar negara) continues even after President Yudhoyono's reaffirmation of the precepts as the "fundamental basis of our national life" on June 1, 2006, at the 61st anniversary of the birth of Pancasila speech proclaimed by the late President Soekarno on June 1, 1945, a few months before Indonesia's declaration of independence on August 17, 1945. President Yudhoyono emphasized the need to fulfill the basic consensus since 1945: Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution, The Unitary State of Indonesia, Diversity in Unity.
Some Islamist groups had alarmed minority and non-Islamic communities with their fervent call for a stricter adherence to a more Islamic precept of social, economic and political life by pushing for an all-encompassing official restriction on "amoral and lewd" behavior, giving rise to fears that other communities will have to be subjected to legal norms contravening their respective personal and public code of conduct. Several regional governments have issued edicts applying shariah law for public behavior. The Ministry of Home Affairs is reviewing some of these edicts, which may directly contravene basic provisions of the Indonesian Constitution of 1945.
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The fifteenth CGI (Consultative Group on Indonesia) meeting was held June 14, 2006 at Bank Indonesia. About eigth cabinet ministers attended the opening session with lead speakers Dr Boediono, the Chief Economics Minister; Dr Sri Mulyani, the Finance Minister and Adm.Widodo, the Chief Security Minister. dr Andrew Steer. Country Director for Indonesia of the World Bank, presided over the sessions. Two publications, Investing for Growth and Recovery, prepared by the World Bank Jakarta Office, and Preliminary Damage and Loss Assessment of the Yogyakarta and Central Java Natural Disaster , prepared by BAPPENAS the National Planning Agency, the Local Governments of Yogyakarta and Central Java and International partners (World Bank, Asian Development Bank) was issued to participants.
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US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Jakarta June 6-7, 2006, where he met President Yudhoyono.The visit was to bolster US-Indonesia milititary relationships which was restored November 22, 2005 folowing the lifting of restrictions on sales of US-made defense equipment for the Indonesian Defense Force (TNI, Tentara Nasional Indonesia). Rumsfeld held a joint press conference with myself at the Indonesian Defense Department at 3pm June 6, following his call on President Yudhoyono.
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