Widodo wants TNI to shed political role

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, APRIL 20. The Indonesian Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Tyasno Sudarto, asserted in Jakarta today that the armed forces were not scouting for a political agenda, while the overall commander of the country's collective military forces (TNI), Adm. Widodo, said the time had come for it to focus on its primary responsibility of defending the territorial frontiers by phasing out its internal security duties.

These comments were designed to defuse an escalating political controversy over the perceived inappropriateness of the Army Chief's stated preparedness to shield the President against any political attempts to unseat him.

On the political front, the President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, and the Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly, Mr. Amien Rais, today agreed to criticise each other in a spirit of democracy and without any overtones of power struggle.

Gen. Sudarto said, by way of a clarification of his recent observations, that ``there is no intention to involve the Indonesian military in politics.'' The TNI, according to him, ``had merely expressed concern over the present situation'' featured by an exaggeration of ``many conflicts.''

Adm. Widodo hinted that the TNI was examining how best to jettison its old theory of ``dwifungsi'' or a duality of roles as the defender of the country's territorial integrity on the external front and as a socio-political force in the domestic arena. ``The socio-political functions of the TNI was misused in the past,'' he conceded and pointed out that the current effort was to make it an institution of ``true national soldiers.'' On a day of much political activity and anticipation, the Vice- President, Ms. Megawati Sukarnoputri's party, the PDI(P), and the former ruling party, the Golkar, expressed themselves against the idea of convening a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly with an open or hidden agenda of trying to topple the President. Mr. Wahid, meanwhile, received a team from the trouble-torn Spice Isles in a bid to bring about racial and religious reconciliation there.

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Section  : International
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