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Civilian Control and Defense Policy in Indonesia’s Nascent Democracy

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Reforming Civil-Military Relations in New Democracies

Abstract

From 1999 to 2004, democratization and the military reform agenda in Indonesia had significantly curbed the military’s long-standing socio-political role and established full civilian control in the political arena. Nevertheless, civilian authority in the national defense sector remains imperfect. The military has been able to isolate the formulation and implementation of defense and military policy from civilian influence by taking advantage of vague regulation and their dominance over the defense bureaucracy. This chapter explains how limited civilian control in the defense sector affects government efforts to develop military effectiveness in Indonesia’s nascent democracy. In order to do so, military effectiveness is treated as a process of military change towards an effective force. The chapter argues that the more restricted civilian authority is in the defense sector, the lower will be the potential for changes in defense and military policy. To test the argument, the chapter analyzes strategic planning, the institutional set-up, and budget allocation for the Indonesian defense sector from 2010 to 2014, paying particular attention to the ambitious Minimum Essential Force (MEF) policy under President Yudhoyono. The analysis shows little significant policy change and, more importantly, evidence of the military’s continued ability to suspend civilian directives in the defense sector. Consequently, limited civilian control in defense and military affairs has seriously undermined military effectiveness.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Article 47 (2) of TNI Law 2004 stipulates that active military officers can fill governmental positions in the: Coordinating Ministry for Politics and Security, Ministry of Defense, Military Secretary of President, State Intelligence, State, National Resilience Institute, National Search and Rescue Agency, National Narcotic Agency, and the Supreme Court.

  2. 2.

    The evaluation suggests that the MEF’s shopping list should be regulated under the Presidential Regulation since the decision-making process of the MEF policy still adopts traditional decision-making processes, which depend on individual or official decisions rather than systemic ones.

  3. 3.

    During the three parliamentary periods from 1999 until 2014, only two members consistently became members of the Komisi 1: Effendi Choirie and Sidarto Danusubroto.

  4. 4.

    In 2011, the Minister of Defense issued a decree on excluded public information within the Ministry of Defense such as: weaponry system shopping lists (excluded for unlimited period); minimum essential force (excluded for unlimited period); minimum essential force development planning (15 years/3 period of strategic plan); and military operations (until the military operations are officially dismissed).

  5. 5.

    Except in 2013, the State Auditor found that there were irregularities in the budget accountabilities from 2010 to 2014 for both institutions financial reports. See, BPK (2010–2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Political Science Department, Bakrie University, Jakarta, Indonesia

    Aditya Batara Gunawan

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  1. Aditya Batara Gunawan
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Correspondence to Aditya Batara Gunawan .

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  1. Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Aurel Croissant

  2. Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    David Kuehn

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Gunawan, A.B. (2017). Civilian Control and Defense Policy in Indonesia’s Nascent Democracy. In: Croissant, A., Kuehn, D. (eds) Reforming Civil-Military Relations in New Democracies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53189-2_7

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