Megawati takes aim at military shake-up
Former Indonesian president asks why change needed when country is ‘not at war’
Former Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has attacked the military’s plans to set up regional commands, asking if it was preparing for a war.
Megawati, head of the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) – also the party of President Joko Widodo, questioned the rationale behind the proposal announced by Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, who called it a key security strategy.
“They say that there will be one command in one region. I say, cut it off,” Megawati told an event organised by a government-run think tank founded by her father and Indonesia’s first president Sukarno.
“We’re not at war with anybody, first of all. Secondly, are we going to war?”
Army chief General Dudung Abdurachman is seeking to establish one military command in each province, after Prabowo said this was essential to help the armed forces work closely with local governments.
But Megawati said the military should strengthen its role in conflict prevention instead of focusing on restructuring to advance personal interests.
“Each individual branch [of the military] must be really good. They shouldn’t pursue their own agenda and shouldn’t enrich themselves,” she said.
Indonesia has 15 regional military commands across its 38 provinces and some of those units oversee one region while others deal with multiple areas.
Dudung said in February he would present the plan later this year to the military’s top commander, Yudo Margono, who also liked the idea, The Jakarta Post reported.
Prabowo’s spokesman said the army chief’s vision was aligned with the minister’s goal of “strengthening the regional commands”. However, it was not defined in the defence ministry’s strategic plan submitted in 2019.
The proposal comes at a time when Indonesia is considering cutting some posts, including mid-level generals, to improve the armed forces’ efficiency in the face of frequent incursions by Chinese vessels into waters around the country’s exclusive economic zone near the Natuna Islands in the disputed South China Sea.