Indonesian Military Reforms: A Reflection 20 Years Later
INDONESIA STUDIES PROGRAMME SEMINAR
About the Seminar
One of the most important results of Reformasi in 1998 was military reform. The reform within the military abolished the dual-functions of the military as a defense and a socio-political force. The police were taken away from military structures. Under the reform, the military institutions are prohibited from doing businesses. Active duty military officers are longer allowed to serve in civilian bureaucracies or any other civilian positions. Not all ideas of military reform could be implemented. The territorial structure of the Army, for example, still exists. The army’s territorial structure has been criticized for its potency to meddle in civilian affairs, especially at the lower level of government structure.
Lately, there has been a tendency to roll back the reform. The administration of President Jokowi, for example, has appointed thousands of active duty military officers into civilian post under the pretext that there is an excess of officers within the military. This seminar will rethink the challenge to preserve some of the results of military reform that have been championed.
About the Speaker
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Agus Widjojo is currently the Governor of the Indonesian National Resilience Institute of Republic of Indonesia (Lemhannas RI). He graduated from Indonesian Armed Forces Academy in 1970 which he had served for 33 years. Before his retirement in 2003, he held duty as Chief-of-Staff for Territorial Affairs for the Indonesian National Armed Forces Commanding General (Panglima TNI) where he worked on the country’s democratisation process and military reform from 1998 to 2004. During that time, he was also representing the TNI/Police faction as a Deputy Speaker in the Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR RI).
General Widjojo was also a deputy of the Presidential Delivery Unit for Program Management and Reform (UKP-PPR) and commissioner in the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship. He currently serves as a member of Advisory Board of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) and Kemitraan bagi Pembaruan Tata Pemerintahan (Partnership for Governance Reform). He also assumes a role as a chairman of Yayasan Indonesia Cerdas-Unggul (Indonesia’s Smart-Eminent Foundation) in its School of Government and Public Policy, as well as a Senior Fellow of Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Jakarta. General Widjojo earned his Master’s degree in Military Art and Science from U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, National Security from U.S. National Defense University, and Public Administration from George Washington University, United States. His research interests are in security sector reform, the democratisation process, and post-conflict reconciliation.
Registration
For registration, please click here. Registration closes on 26 November 2019.