|
Indonesia's armed forces (Indonesian: Tentara Nasional Indonesia, abbreviated as TNI, formerly Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia, abbreviated as ABRI) total about 300,000 members, including the Army (TNI-AD), Navy(including marines), and Air Force. The army is by far the largest, with about 233,000 active-duty personnel. Defence spending in the national budget is only 3% of GDP but is supplemented by revenue from many military-run businesses and foundations. Air Chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto is the Commander-in-Chief. The Indonesian National Police were for many years a branch of the armed forces. The police were formally separated from the military in April 1999, a process which was formally completed in July 2000. With 150,000 personnel, the police form a much smaller portion of the population than in most nations. The total number of national and local police in 2002 was approximately 270,000.
Political role of the military During the Suharto era, the military was sometimes said to have a "dual function" (dwifungsi) in Indonesia; first, it would preserve the internal and external security of the country, preserving it as a unified nation, and second, it would ensure that government policy followed a path that the military leadership felt was wise. This justified substantial military interference in politics. Long-time president Suharto was an army general, and was strongly supported by most of the military establishment. Traditionally a significant number of cabinet members had military backgrounds, while active duty and retired military personnel occupied a large number of seats in the parliament. Commanders of the various territorial commands played influential roles in the affairs of their respective regions. Indonesia has not had a substantial conflict with its neighbours since the 1963-1965 confrontation with Malaysia, although competing South China Sea claims, where Indonesia has large natural gas reserves, concern the Indonesian government. Without a credible external threat in the region, the military's primary role in practice has been to assure internal security. Military leaders now say they wish to transform the military to a professional, external security force but acknowledge that the armed forces will continue to play an internal security role for some time. In the post-Suharto period since 1998, civilian and military leaders have advocated removing the military from politics (for example, the military's representatives in parliament have been much reduced), but the military's political influence remains extensive. The TNI has been notorious since the alleged massacre of pro-communist ethnic Chinese in 1965-6 and the East Timor Crisis, which in both events, the TNI allegedly neglected and killed hundreds and thousands of people. Structure Sources: International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2006 and http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/KODAM Military equipment The Indonesian Navy purchased a number of ships of the former East German navy in the 1990s. In 2005 the Indonesian Air Force experienced a logistics crisis, especially in regard to the F-16 Fighting Falcons and A-4 Skyhawks that account for almost 80% of the total number of Indonesian combat aircraft. The supply of spare parts for these aircraft from the United States was stopped due to an embargo imposed on Indonesia following a number of violations against civil and human rights in East Timor. This led to the grounding of most of the Western-made fighters. In response to this embargo, in 2003 the Indonesian Air Force bought two Sukhoi Aerospace Su-27 Flankers and two Sukhoi Aerospace Su-30 Flanker-Ds. Along with the fighters came the armament, the AA-10 Alamo air-to-air missile. Also, by cooperating with local military equipment manufacturers such as Pindad and Hoverindo Nusa Persada, the Indonesian military is now capable of manufacturing its own military equipment, which mostly ranges in areas of small arms due to Indonesia's inability to master more advanced and larger weaponry such as armor, air and naval units. Following the 2004 tsunami in Aceh the American government suspended the spare parts embargo for non-lethal equipment and military vehicles to support the humanitarian effort in the tsunami-devastated Indonesian regions of Aceh and Nias. On 22 November 2005, the U.S. announced that military ties with Indonesia would be restored. The decision would end the six-year U.S. ban on arms sales. * | ||||||||
|
| |||||||||
 |
|
| |