CAPP Events: 2003

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Conference on the Military and Democracy in Indonesia

Over 60 U.S. and Asian government and military officials, analysts, and business executives, including representatives of several Southeast Asian embassies, attended a conference and panel discussion sponsored by RAND and the United States-Indonesia Society (USINDO) at RAND's Washington office on December 11, 2002. The event was held in connection with the release of The Military and Democracy in Indonesia: Challenges, Politics, and Power, by Dr. Angel Rabasa and Col. (Ret.) John Haseman. The work on the report was funded by the Smith Richardson Foundation and conducted under the auspices of RAND's International Security and Defense Policy Center.

The Honorable Richard Solomon, President of the United States Institute of Peace and a member of CAPP's Advisory Board, chaired the conference. The panelists included the authors of the report, Dr. Rabasa and Colonel Haseman, Lieutenant General Agus Widjojo, former Vice Chairman of the Indonesian People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), and Dr. Marvin Ott, Professor of National Security Policy at the National War College. The Indonesian Ambassador, His Excellency Soemadi Brotodiningrat, and USINDO Vice President Dan Getz also addressed the conference.

The panel discussion took place in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Bali and the expansion of the war on terrorism in Southeast Asia. Dr. Ott noted that after a low ebb in bilateral military-to-military relations between U.S. and Indonesia, the September 11 and Bali terrorist attacks have "utterly transformed how we view Southeast Asia" and resuscitated U.S. interest in the region. Indonesia is the center of gravity in Southeast Asia, he said, and we are refocusing on internal security. The question is what needs to be done to best strengthen security and how to do it.

Dr. Rabasa outlined the findings of the report and put forward a list of goals for Indonesian military reform and recommendations for a strategy of U.S. engagement, including prioritizing the restoration of International Military Education and Training (IMET) funding for Indonesia. Colonel Haseman noted that the reforms that would be most desirable to the United States -- discipline and cultural change in the military -- will also be the most difficult for the Indonesians to achieve. General Widjojo stressed the importance of judging the Indonesian military in the context of the rest of Indonesian society. The military does not exist in isolation, so what is needed, according to General Widjojo, is a holistic approach to reform.

In his intervention, Ambassador Brotodiningrat stated that military reform could make or break the Indonesian reform process. The subject of the conference, he stressed, is extremely important, but as other participants noted, U.S. expertise on the Indonesian military is very thin. Most U.S. experts were actually present at the conference.