The story of Indonesia’s ongoing political reformation,
the “Reformasi” is a long one. Despite the success of independence struggles
from the Dutch between 1945 to 1949, President Sukarno gradually shifted from
democracy towards authoritarianism, dubbed “Guided Democracy.” An alleged
attempted coup by the communists in 1965 saw General Suharto take power from
President Sukarno and institute his own authoritarian “New Order”. For three
decades, backed by military support, inside and outside of parliament, Suharto
ruled Indonesia, and, supported by the US government, encouraged foreign direct
investment in Indonesia, which was a major factor in the subsequent period of
substantial economic growth. However, the "New Order" was widely
accused of corruption and suppression of political opposition, with over a
million thought to have been killed under the repressive regime, within
Indonesia as well as human rights abuses in Tanah (West Papua) and Timor-Leste.
The Asian Economic Crisis was the catalyst for a major
paradigm shift in Indonesian politics. Being the hardest hit by the crisis, this
led to popular protest against the New Order which led to Suharto's resignation
in May 1998 and handing over of power to the power over to the Vice President
B.J. Habibie. In 1999, East Timor voted in a UN-supervised popular referendum
to secede from Indonesia, after a twenty-five-year military occupation that was
marked by international condemnation of repression of the East Timorese. Since
1998, Indonesian political and governmental structures have undergone major
reforms. One of those who has played a key role in the reforms, which includes
the transition of power from the military to the state, from within the
Indonesian armed forces is Lt. General (Ret.) Agus Widjojo.
Agus (as he introduced himself on joining a lunch with
former Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. N. Hassan Wirajuda), is the former Vice Chairman (Deputy Speaker)
of the National Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia and Indonesian Armed
Forces (TNI) Chief of Territorial Affairs.
He is regarded as one of the TNI’s leading thinkers. During his
appointment as Commandant of the Armed Force’s staff college, the TNI think
tank, he was responsible for restructuring the political and security doctrine
of the TNI. He also serves as a member of the Indonesia-Timor Leste Joint Truth
and Friendship Commission and is a member of the advisory Board of the
Institute of Peace and Democracy, Udayana University as well as an advisor to
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. He has also visited Fiji in the past to
speak on Indonesia’s transition.
Agus, whose father was one of the generals kidnapped and
killed in the first days of the coup in 1965, was one of the first intakes at
the joint Indonesian Armed Forces Military Academy (AKABRI) established by
Suharto in 1967. By the beginning of the Refomasi in 1999, a number of the
“Class of 1970”who were the first to graduate from AKABRI realised that conditions
had changed in Indonesia and that instead of maintaining the status quo, the
military had no option but to adapt to evolving social expectations and
demands. Agus was part of a smaller group in the military leadership who saw
the need for immediate and radical change. As a result, instead of
consolidating power in the vacuum left by Suharto’s resignation, the military
opted to reform itself from a political force to a professional military
focusing on the constitutional role and authority of national defence under
civilian supremacy in a democratic political system.
Since 1959, there had been military representation, not
elected but appointed, in the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) – the
Indonesian Parliament. Under Suharto, the military and police representation
was 100 out of 500 seats. Following the 1999 elections, 38 seats were reserved
for the military/police faction. Agus became the “leading light”of the
evolutionary change group and, as head of the military and police faction in the
People’s Consultative Assembly, was instrumental in convincing the military
leadership to withdraw the last vestiges of its legislative representation in
2004, five years earlier than 2009 as previously scheduled. It was not an easy
process. It was hard to break old habits.
“The military was not prepared for this transition, it
was forced by the circumstances of the Asian Crisis,” said Agus, over coffee.
“How did we manage the transition? By trial and error. There was a fear of
leaving governance to civilians only, so it was a slow decrease of the
militarisation of government positions. We decided that is was better for the
military to leave the political arena with dignity than be forced by
politicians, so we gave up the assembly seats in 2002 instead of the expected
2009.”
According to Agus,
the yardstick of TNI’s role in the democratic and political changes was based
on the principle TNI would leave the democratic transition process to the
civilian politician, and that the less TNI involved itself in the democratic
and political transition the more TNI contributed to the democratic and
political transition.
“We gradually demilitarised the police and left law
enforcement and internal security to them under the regional government while
the military, under the central government is responsible for external security
and assisting in agriculture and infrastructure development.”
In an interview given in 2012, Agus said, “Although
Indonesia has now experienced 14 years of her transition to democracy, by all
means it is far from completion. We went through a period of having 4
presidents in 6 years. Indonesia is still in the process to progress from
democratic transition into democratic consolidation where ‘democracy is the
only game in town’. We still see the unavoidable characteristic of a democratic
transition such as the struggle to establish an effective government which is
able to deliver its promises and move from procedural democracy to a more
substantive democracy. In this transition Indonesia is still in the process to
establish an effective function of the rule of law.”
At the same time, the “Reformasi” has resulted in the
establishment of new institutions to allow better quality of checks and
balances and control, such as the Constitutional Court, the National Commission
of Human Rights, and the Commission for The Eradication of Corruption.
“True believers are needed from both the civil and
military leadership to ensure this transition takes place,” said Agus.
“People need to trust in the police to enforce laws
rather than the military. We need to ensure that our best and brightest don’t
just go into politics but realise that they are needed in civil society. And we
need to transform the culture of strong leadership, into a culture of collective
authority.”
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