Indonesian military to set up TV station

Indonesian military to set up TV station

By Michael Tardif

The Indonesian military (ABRI) plans to establish its own television station. Chief of staff Vice Admiral Soedibyo Rahardjo announced the plan at the opening ceremony for three new military radio stations.

The move is seen by many as a response to the continued erosion of ABRI's civil powers.

After the bloody coup in 1965, the ABRI promoted the idea of "dual function" as a justification for its extensive intervention into civil society. The military had a dual role: to defend the nation and to provide a stable hand in the development process.

The latter role became the basis upon which serving officers took up positions in the government bureaucracy and management positions in the private economy.

Although President Suharto initially derived his authority from his position as a military leader, in the 1970s he began to rely more on civilian methods of legitimising his regime. The passing of a generation within the military also resulted in privatisation of much of the military's business interests and thus an erosion of its economic power.

Today the higher echelons of government are increasingly civilian. The ideological significance of dual function has been downgraded in favour of intensive ideological campaigns around the official state ideology, Panca Sila.

ABRI remains a significant political force, but while the Suharto regime uses military force to rule, the social and political interests of the military are not its first concern.

Public debate on the role of the military is becoming commonplace. Recently, leading political scientists Miriam Budiardjo and Arbi Sanit told a parliamentary hearing that the 100 parliamentary seats reserved for the military should be reduced to strengthen democracy.

From GLW issue 63