Juwono Sudarsono

Modernizing The Indonesian Defense Force

Post date: 23 Apr 2008 - by: Juwono S.

Dipersiapkan untuk pertemuan Menteri Pertahanan dengan prajurit dan keluarga dari Kompi Intai Tempur Komando Cadangan Strategis Angkatan Darat, Jakarta, 24 April 2008.

Prepared for meeting of Defense Minister with soldiers and family of the Army Strategic Reserve’s Combat Reconnaissance Company, Jakarta, 24 April 2008.

Tanya 1: Pertanyaan yang diajukan prajurit Kitaipur Kostrad adalah: bagaimana Departemen Pertahanan memodernisasikan kemampuan TNI dengan memanfaatkan teknologi informasi yang lebih maju, agar tidak ketinggalan dengan negara-negara tetangga?

Question 1: Questions posed by a soldier from the Combat Reconnaissance Company of the Army Strategic Reserve is: How is the Ministry of Defense modernizing the Defense Force’s capability through the application of advanced information technology, in order to keep abreast with the forces of neighbouring countries?

Jawaban 1: Departemen Pertahanan melalui Badan Litbang, Badan Diklat dan Pusat Data dan Informasi melakukan penelitian bersama untuk mempersiapkan terciptanya sistem peperangan berbasis jaringan, sehingga kemajuan yang dicapai di semua jenis industri elektronik di dalam negeri dipantau dan diupayakan dapat mendukung sistim komunikasi tri matra terpadu. Dengan demikian setiap jaringan komando dan kendali akan semakin mudah melaksanakan operasi militer berbasis jaringan terpadu dan meningkatkan effsiensi gelar pasukan maupun gelar bantuan menghadapi tanggap darurat akibat bencana manusia atau pun bencana alam.

Answer 1: The Defense Department through its Research and Development and Education and Training Agencies as well as its Center for Data and Information is undertaking joint studies and research to prepare the establishment of a Network Centric Warfare system, synergizing all domestic electronic industries towards building an integrated tri-service communications command system. All this will lead to a more unified command and control network which would facilitate more efficient military operations commands for purposes of troop deployment as well as for undertaking speedy emergency response in face of man-made as well as natural disasters.

Tanya 2: Apakah Departemen Pertahanan mengembangkan program peningkatan kualitas pengetahuan dan ketrampilan prajurit guna menghadapi tantangan kualitas sumber daya manusia dalam era globalisasi?

Question 2: Is the Department of Defense developing programs to enhance the quality of knowledge and skills of soldiers to face the challenges of human resources-based competition in an increasingly globalized world?

Jawaban 2: Semua jajaran Dephan sedang diperkenalkan dengan apa yang disebut “Perang Sumber Daya Manusia”. Karena itu, pada setiap jenjang ketentaraan maupun pegawai negeri sipil, Departemen Pertahanan ikut membantu pengembangan ketrampilan para prajurit beserta anggota keluarganya. Setiap orang yang lebih siap menghadapi perang ketrampilan dan perang pengetahuan akan menyumbang langsung pada pertahanan non-militer. Dalam perekonomian global, kemampuan “perang otak” dan “perang selisih keunggulan” akan menentukan kualitas pertahanan bangsa dalam arti luas.

Answer 2: At all levels, Department of Defense personnel are being introduced to the concept of “Human Resources Warfare”. As many of all military as well as civilian personnel and their family members as possible are being encouraged to be aware of and be engaged in this “ battle of knowledge” and “battle of skills” and contribute to the overall capability of the nation in the field of non-military defense. In a globalized economy, the ability to be engaged in “the war of brainware” and the “war of margins of excellence” will ultimately decide a nation’s overall defense capability.

Posted in Defense - 19 Comments »

Sanity Over Myanmar and Pakistan

Post date: 15 Oct 2007 - by: Juwono S.

Reading and viewing Western print and satellite TV and their Southeast counterparts recently, it’s hard to believe that there is deep understanding about the historical, cultural and economic context of what these media call present day Myanmar and Pakistan.

The staple line of argument among liberal media circles in the West is that the “military junta” or “military regime” in Myanmar and Pakistan need to be changed into liberal democracies along the lines of what politicians, legislators and media pundits in America and Britain seemed to be obsessed with. The illusion that Aung San Suu Kyi, Benazir Bhutto and/or Nawaz Sharif and their coterie of politicos/lawyers are able to devise a alternative, competent and unifying “democratic”political system remains a strong and, at the same time, naive and dangerous one.

Some 8 years ago, at the residence of the British ambassador in Jakarta, I was invited to meet for tea with Michael Aris, husband of Aung San Suu Kyi. I asked him pointedly whether the National League for Democracy which his wife headed was really a viable political organization that could galvanise a sense of national purpose among Myanmar’s civic society, particularly among Shans, Karens, Kachens and other minorities. His answer was so carefully guarded that I did not press the point. I had earlier remarked to him that (then) Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri was still grappling with forging unity within her PDIP party. In other words, for the NLD and PDIP there were limits to riding on the on the charisma of Aung San and Soekarno, to which both Syuu Kyi’s and Megawat relied upon for their influence and legitimacy.

Posted in International - 16 Comments »

Clash of Civilizations: Real or Imagined?

Post date: 16 Jun 2007 - by: Juwono S.

I have been asked to address the issue of the topic presented at the launch of the Centre for Dialogue and Cooperation among Civilizations: Clash of Civilizations: Real or Imagined? I have come to the conclusion that the clash is both real as well as imagined, simply because “facts” or reality are often inseparable from perceptions “imagined”. The more so because much of the debate has been exacerbated and distorted through media.

Western media have used such variants of expressions ranging from “Islamic fundamentalism”, “Islamic terrorism”, “Islamic Jihadists”, and even “Islamic Fascists”. Toxic television, rabble ras well as trash tabloids are prone to use these caricatures. They feed on one another in ways “fact” becomes fiction, and fiction “ ignites” facts.

The Muslim world as a whole has suffered from this massive media manipulation. It has given rise to many different set of perceptions about “clashes within civilizations,” including among Muslims in the Middle East, Asia and Southeast Asia. You can also say that it is a clash of ideas about civilizations across all continents.

The “Clash of Civilizations” was first publicly raised in 1993 in an article written in Foreign Affairs magazine by Professor Samuel Huntington , and it is useful to remind ourselves of the context of when and why the question of clash of civilizations was brought up at the time.

First, it appeared in the wake of the “victory” of liberal capitalism over communism symbolized by the unification of two Germanies in October and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in December. Earlier, the January 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait added the sense of western triumphalism. American hegemonism was at its peak.

Posted in International, Nation - 4 Comments »

Indonesia’s War Against Poverty

Post date: 03 Mar 2007 - by: Juwono S.

The most pressing political-economic issue facing Indonesia is poverty reduction. The Department of Defense’s role in this regard is to provide support in enabling the government’s delivery system with regard to the numerous programs and projects administered or co-joined with various domestic and international agencies, both public as well as private.

Poverty in Indonesia, measured in income terms, affect 48% of Indonesia’s total population of 220 million. The government’s Medium Term Development Program (Rencana Jangka Menengah, RPJM) aims to reduce the poverty head count from 18.2 percent in 2004 to roughly 8.4 percent by 2009. When the plan was announced in the first cabinet meeting in late October 2004, no one foresaw the various domestic and international crises that would severely affect the trajectory of the poverty reduction programs.

Following the tsunami in late December 2004, there occurred earthquakes, mudflows, rice crises, the spike in international oil price rises and a host of residual social and ethnic conflicts throughout the archipelago arising from the crises of 7-8 years before. In addition, other natural and man-made disasters severely diverted the government’s resources to effectively alleviate poverty at the scope and speed that was originally targeted in late October 2004.

The World Bank’s Jakarta Office, in its outstanding report “Making the New Indonesia Work for The Poor” (November 2006) makes a clear case for the urgency that in addition to income-poverty, Indonesia still faces a long and difficult journey in pursuing programs to drastically reduce non-income poverty: malnutrition among a quarter of all children below the age of five; high maternal mortality rates (307 deaths in 100.00 births); education outcomes remain weak (among 16-18 year olds from the poorest quintile, only 55 percent completed junior high school (Sekolah Menengah Pertama, SMP); access to safe and clean water is slow (43 percent in rural areas, 78 percent in urban areas for the lowest quintile).

Posted in Defense, Development - 18 Comments »

The Iraq Problem and Indonesia’s Experience

Post date: 25 Dec 2006 - by: Juwono S.

American policy makers are debating the merits of the Congress-mandated Baker-Hamilton Report of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) announced almost three weeks ago. The gist of the ISG report calls for an American military withdrawal within 18 months, well before the US presidential elections in November 2008. President Bush has rejected the ISG recommendation for a “graceful interval” of US forces pull out of Iraq, implying that the US will remain in Iraq until “the forces of freedom” triumph there.

At the same time, the Pentagon is wrapping up its own Iraq Review. The Pentagon review, led by Chairman of the Joint-Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace and prepared by three American colonels (two army and one marine) with experience on the ground in various insurgency-afflicted countries, provides a much more “ground level” military approach to the American military role in Iraq. The three options mentioned___ Go Big, Go Long and Go Home aims to boost US troop presence by 20.000 personnel, stave off sectarian violence and support Iraq to build a government of “national reconciliation”. There is no mention of a timetable for American withdrawal, though Defense Secretary Robert Gates has acknowledged that America “cannot win in Iraq.” However, there seems to be speculation that a “Go Long” strategy means “a surge” of American troop increase (”Go Big”), will eventually lead to a “Go Home” scenario.

In essence, American policymakers are reviewing the role of US military forces abroad, realizing that superior military technology has limits over essentially social and political problems on the ground. The paradox of American military power seems to be that the more overwhelming its military presence the less influential it becomes on matters pertaining to the local social and cultural situation on the ground. This is true of Afghanistan and even more pertinent to the situation in present day Iraq.

Posted in International - 6 Comments »

Visit to Mark Closer Ties With Jakarta

Post date: 20 Nov 2006 - by: Juwono S.

In light of President Bush’s current visit to Indonesia. “Military Cooperation Grows as U.S. Concerns on Rights Issues Recede.” Special article by Joe Cochrane to The Washington Post.

In the run-up to President Bush’s visit to Indonesia this week, two dozen members of a fundamentalist Islamic group raided and occupied a historic botanical garden in the mountain town of Bogor, outside Jakarta. Their target was the site where a construction crew was building a landing pad for Bush’s helicopter. Their message was simple: Bush was not welcome in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.

Within 30 minutes, hammers were pounding again and the cement mixer had resumed turning, but as a media event, the gimmick briefly worked. Other, little-known Muslim groups began protesting Bush’s visit and were given blanket coverage by local news outlets. Senior members of Indonesia’s parliament accused Bush of slaughtering Muslims worldwide and claimed his half-day visit to Bogor was part of a plot to control Indonesia’s economy.

Posted in International - 6 Comments »