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TOKYO -- The Indonesian military is suffering from a colossal black eye.
The figurative shiner was brought on by the armed forces' resort to
indiscriminate violence first in East Timor and more recently in the
rebellious province of Aceh.
Time and a conciliatory attitude by friends and remorse by the
military itself will be needed to heal the domestic and international
disgrace of the one disciplined force Indonesia has had over the
past three decades.
To say that the Indonesian army of 220,000 and the attached 177,000
police and militiamen are all evil is an exaggeration. But chronicling
the military's admirable moments in the last few years would be an
equally foolhardy exercise.
New President Abdurrahman Wahid must count on the military's good
behavior to give his precarious administration the backing it needs
throughout the nation of 212,941,810 residing on 3,000 of the Indonesian
archipelago's 13,500 islands.
There must be a rebuilding of the military's operational procedures,
morale and leadership.
Wahid has done what any reasonably astute politician would do with a
surplus of powerful, ambitious and in some cases misbehaving generals:
promote them instead of punishing them.
Former military chief and defense minister General Wiranto has been
named coordinating minister for political and security affairs, a post
that deprives him of any direct line of command to troops.
Direct of the armed forces is now in the hands of Adm. A.S. Widodo,
the first navy officer to hold that post since Indonesia became a republic
in 1950 after declaring independence in 1945. That followed long Dutch
colonial rule and Japanese World War II occupation.
For Defense Minister, Wahid has gone outside military ranks for the
first time in three decades to tap former Education Minister Juwono
Suarsono. A former senior member of the military's think tank, Juwono has
pledged to restore the military's professionalism and respect.
The shrewd Wahid promoted two generals regarded as rising stars out of
the army and into the cabinet where he can keep an eye on them. He made Lt.
Gen. Agum Gumelar transport minister and Lt. Gen. Bambang Yudhoyono
minister of mines.
Whether by coincidence or by Wahid's design, all of these military
names have spent some time in the United States and are known to key
Pentagon officials. There is lobbying on the U.S. side to restore modest
military cooperation which was cut in June 1997 by then-President Suharto
due to U.S. criticism of Indonesia's human rights record.
According to the Jakarta coffee shop grapevine forwarded by email
and other sources, it is too early to even speculate about a possible coup
d'etat by miffed generals or colonels seeking to seize power.
One of Japan's leading experts on Indonesia, Professor Takashi
Shiraishi, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, gives the
new government "a year or two" to prove it is serious in restoring
justice and putting the state apparatus back in order.
In a newspaper contribution, he wrote that inaction within that time
frame "would deplete popular support for the government and the small
window of opportunity the new president has right now would be lost."
The military is of great importance in conduct and management of the
"state apparatus" referred to frequently by domestic and foreign
specialists.
Suharto's New Order regime started as a military organization in the
late 1960s and provided the President's power base as well as performing
civic duties. The country is divided into 10 military regions, each region
into military "resorts," and resorts into military districts, each district
into sub-districts, to which an army non-commissioned officer is assigned
and makes reports on defense, security, civic and political activities.
Edward Neilan (eneilan@crisscross.com) is a veteran journalist, based in Tokyo, who covers East Asia and writes weekly for World Tribune.com.