[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Indonesia armed for a fight
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- Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 23:08:26 +0100
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**http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GK24Ae01.html
Nov 24, 2005
Indonesia armed for a fight
By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA - Citing "national security interests" and noting that Indonesia plays
a strategic role in Southeast Asia and is a "voice of moderation in the Islamic
world", the US State Department jumped the gun on Tuesday and lifted a
Congress-approved arms embargo against Indonesia.
With East Timor now independent and Aceh no longer a theater of war,
Indonesia's pressing need is to upgrade its armed forces to cope with internal
security, fight terrorism, guard vital sea lanes, protect the country's
numerous oil and gas platforms from terrorist strikes and enforce its maritime
boundaries to prevent foreign trawlers from poaching its resources.
Smuggling, illegal fishing and maritime piracy are rife in Indonesian waters,
and the addition of more sophisticated vessels will go a long way to curbing
these threats.
A week ago, Congress approved an appropriations bill that gave Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice the authority to waive remaining arms restrictions on
Indonesia, but it had been thought that the White House would use the
possibility of a waiver as leverage to extract concessions from Indonesia, such
as on human rights.
But Washington will resume full relations with the Indonesian military and
provide additional defense funding and counter-terrorism assistance to Jakarta
- without strings.
"Indonesia is a voice of moderation in the Islamic world," State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said.
US military ties were scaled back in 1992 after a massacre of civilians in East
Timor. They were further reduced after pro-Jakarta militias and security forces
killed thousands of people during the August 1999 East Timor vote for
independence.
The move, which caught lawmakers and congressional aides by surprise, comes
only days after Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono met the US and
Russian presidents at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in
South Korea.
After discussions with President George W Bush, Yudhyono, an ex-general, told a
news conference, "I am not pleading for a resumption. We deserve it because we
have undergone a reform in our military, with an emphasis on respecting human
rights and democracy."
The bulk of Indonesia's hardware is US-made and the TNI - as the army is called
- suffers shortages as it can't get replacements and spares.
As a result, Jakarta has increasingly turned to Moscow. After Yudhyono's
discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was announced that both
leaders had agreed to start up intensive negotiations on setting up a joint
production facility for certain sophisticated military equipment and to develop
a national defense industry in cash-strapped Indonesia.
A deal struck by Yudhyono's predecessor, Megawati Sukarnoputri, with the former
communist giant has proved to be the stepping-stone for a far closer
relationship with Russia. The Megawati government agreed a US$192 million
purchase of two Sukhoi-27 and two Sukhoi-30 warplanes as well as two MI-35
assault helicopters. At the time, the Indonesian Air Force chief spoke of an
intention to acquire a total of 48 Sukhoi aircraft over the next four years.
Under the deal, Indonesia paid 13.5% of the cost in cash in advance, with the
rest to be settled under a counter trade scheme comprising commodities such as
rubber, palm oil, cocoa, tea, coffee, textiles, bauxite, electronic equipment,
plastics, tin, fruit and fish products.
In September, Air Force Vice Marshal Pieter Wattimena, director general of
procurement at Indonesia's Ministry of Defense, led a delegation of 16 defense
officials to Moscow. The group lobbied Russia to replace the US as Indonesia's
main weapons supplier.
The US's surprise decision might have an impact on this.
Earlier this month, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono, proposing a military
budget increase to deal with "heightened threats against the country's
sovereignty and unity", commented that it was "a miracle that we are able to
keep this vast territory from breaking apart, should we look at the condition
of our military, whose numbers and equipment are inadequate".
The navy maintains that a large number of the 117 ships in its fleet are either
obsolete, or are run down because it does not have the resources needed to keep
them in working order. The fleet includes two Type 209-class submarines and 13
frigates, only six of which, the Ahmed Yani-class ships, are reasonably modern
(carrying Sea Cat surface-to-air missiles and Harpoon anti-ship missiles).
The other seven frigates (three Tribal-class and four Claude Jones-class), are
armed only with guns, and do not have modern fire-control systems. There are
also four light frigates (armed with Exocet anti-ship missiles), and 16 Parchim
I-class corvettes, as well as numerous patrol boats and support vessels.
The air force primarily operates the older F-5 fighter and A-4 attack planes.
Its modern fighter force consists of 16 F-16As, the two Su-27SKs and two
Su-30MK fighters (an Su-27 that has been souped up for naval warfare) plus 16
Hawk 209 light attack jets.
Two army elite units - the army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) and the
Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) - will eventually get global positioning
satellite devices.
Yudhyono has also pushed for defense cooperation agreements with other nations
to reduce dependence on US and European weapons. After his Korea trip, he flew
with a 100-strong entourage to India for a three-day visit. The first stop was
Bangalore, at India's sole military aircraft manufacturer, Hindustan
Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Indonesian Air Force Chief of Staff Air Marshall Djoko Suyanto said the
government was seeking to buy spare parts and missiles from HAL for the
Sukhois.
On a state visit to Beijing at the end of July, Yudhyono and Chinese President
Hu Jintao issued a joint statement in which they agreed to intensify bilateral
cooperation in defense and military fields.
A different kind of battle
The religious elite in Indonesia, which is the world's largest Muslim country,
have issued a fatwa (edict) against jihadi terrorism, reports Fabio Scarpello
of Inter Press Service (IPS).
Over the past three years, Indonesia has been stained by a series of terrorist
attacks carried out by jihadis.
The fatwa revolves around the interpretation of "jihad" (holy war) . "It is a
welcome development and will help clarify the perception of those who associate
terrorism with jihad. But terrorism is not just the product of a distorted
ideology. Its roots lie also in the social problems of our society," Masdar
Farid Mas'udi, director of the Indonesian Society for Pesantren (religious
schools) Development, told IPS.
The new "task force against terrorism", as the group of mainstream religious
leaders has been dubbed, includes individual Muslim scholars as well as members
of Indonesia's two largest Islamic organizations, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and
Muhammadiyah - which have a combined membership of 70 million people - and also
representatives of Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI), the country's highest
religious body.
Their mission, as described by Indonesia's Minister of Religious Affairs M
Maftuh Basyuni, is to explain what jihad is and to counter the distorted
ideology of radical Islam.
Jihad literally means struggle and according to most Muslim scholars it means
both an inward struggle to better oneself and the Muslim responsibility to
prevent injustice in the world. In certain circumstances, it could also mean an
active struggle. However, the concept has been distorted by terrorists, who
have used it as a cover to carry out attacks in the name of Islam.
To counter misinterpretation, the task force has announced plans to publish
pamphlets, monitor books and publications that promote wrong interpretations of
Islam and also talk to the young and impressionable students that crowd the
country's pesantrens - private Islamic schools.
The pesantrens (also known as madrassas) in West and Central Java, have proved
to be the favorite recruiting ground for the country's growing radical
movement.
The involvement of mainstream Islamic leaders breaks years of an almost total
silence, during which the ulemas (religious leaders) stubbornly avoided comment
on the link between terrorism and religion, except for a whispered fatwa
against terrorism, issued by the MUI in 2003.
Credit for the changed attitude must go to a quiet evening the ulemas spent at
the residence of Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla on November 16, when
the group was shown a video found after a recent police raid on a house in
Semarang, West Java, where Noordin M Top, a wanted terrorist, was thought to be
hiding.
Apart from tips on how to make bombs and threaten Westerners, the video also
showed three young people, who later blew themselves up in Bali on October 1,
justifying their action in the name of jihad. The attack left 20 people dead.
"My brother and wife, God willing, when you see this recording, I will already
be in heaven," one of them, identified as bomber Muhammad Salik Firdaus, said
in Arabic. Firdaus is one of nine home-grown suicide bombers so far identified
by the police.
Since watching the video, the ulemas and other religious leaders have spoken
out unreservedly against the suicide bombers.
Ma'aruf Amin, head of the MUI's fatwa department as well as the designated
leader of the newly formed religious task force, said that terrorism is haram
(a sin) and therefore, forbidden under Islam.
"What they do is suicidal acts and also acts of terrorism. Since Indonesia is
not in a war zone, those acts are forbidden," he was quoted as saying by
Detik.com, an online news service. Similar condemnations have been made by
other top Islamic leaders and recorded in the media worldwide.
Din Syamsuddin, a senior member of Muhammadiyah and one of those invited at
Kalla's home, said jihad as a means of outward struggle is not acceptable in a
context such as Indonesia.
"The concept of jihad is only acceptable in war-torn regions, where Muslims are
evicted from their homeland and their wealth is confiscated, like in
Palestine," he told the The Jakarta Post daily.
Bill Guerin, a Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times Online since 2000, has been
in Indonesia for 20 years, mostly in journalism and editorial positions. He has
been published by the BBC on East Timor and specializes in business/economic
and political analysis related to Indonesia. He can be reached at
softsell@xxxxxxxxxxxx
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
for information on sales, syndication and republishing .)
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