Security Sector Rerform in Indonesia: “The Role of Civil Society on the National Security Policy, Challenges and Opportunities”

Before the so-called Reformasi occurred in 1998, Indonesia has experienced significant factors that challenged the definition of “Security” within the President Soeharto reign. The concept of security has been controlled by the military under the Government—especially in order to maintain its internal security to provide an excellent effort for Pembangunan. Soeharto-reign had socially constructed the concept of security by controlling the military force to prevent any kind of threats to the state. The supremacy of military towards society becomes significant. Dwifungsi ABRI (Dual-function for the Military Force) doctrine has empowered them since the Soeharto era—although its been officially removed, the mindset continues until nowadays in the social activities.

However, after the fall of the New Order-regime in 1998—Reformasi—Indonesia deliberately attempted to reformed their governance. These include, for instance, the Security Sector Reform. The so-called Security Sector Reform itself emerged post-9/11—globally, many countries—including Indonesia—started to reform its security sectors. Since the fall of Soeharto-era, Indonesia has faced a lot of security threats both in military and non-military aspects. These includes: territorial dispute and border claims, democracy, economic recessions, internal conflict and separatism, health security etc. The SSR was very important in order to deal with those non-military threats.

Essentially, the main purpose of the SSR was to create good governance in the Security sector and to establish social-environmental stability. Therefore, the Government could pursue its own goals to accomplish their national interests—moreover, to maintain the social welfare and national prosperity.

In Indonesia, the process of SSR still became a major concern due to the mindset that prohibited seeing the process as a whole. There are many obstacles faced by the SSR in Indonesia. The biggest obstacle was the absence of basic conception and step-by-step rule that could be viewed as a grand design ini order to accomplished the purpose of SSR itself. The low effort from the Government—the absence of the good will—also became the main obstacle on the succession of SSR.

Although the SSR in Indonesia has built some rule of law in order to maintained the efficiency of the Security actors—UU TNI and UU Polri, the implementation of the law could not be accomplished as the main goal of SSR like the Government’s expectation.

One of the prominent aspect for the SSR in Indonesia’s both challenges and opportunities were the involvement of civilians in SSR in Indonesia. According to Prof. Anak Agung Banyu Perwite, the role of society has been limited on the policy making process—as shown by the construction of Indonesia’s Defence White Paper. For instance, SSR mostly distressed the establishment for the participation from the civilians on the security aspects.

Three main goals on improving the role of civil society in the National Security Policy. First, the establishment of the professionals Military Forces within the guidelines of democracy. Practically, the so-called security actors still showed their non-professionalism—for instance, we could see at many cases that the security actors violated their counterparts and mostly, they did not respect the rights of civil society. Second, the development of Ministry of Defence’s capacity. Third, last but not least, the development of parlement’s oversight plus establishing the role of civil society including NGOs and Freedom of Press. The oversight towards the Security Bureaucracy in Indonesia still considered as the inadequate one. The key role of Parlemen as the supervisor of SSR could not established efficiently.

Still, the SSR in Indonesia needs a lot of improvement. The engagement of civil society in Indonesia’s National Security Policy should be more advanced in the future. National Security Policy was an element from the Government Policy—its emphasized on both the formulation and the implementation of the national strategy in order to maintained the conducive situation for sustaining the goals of national interests. INFID (International NGO Forum on Indonesia Development) could be considered as one of the promoter for the greater participations by the civil society in Indonesia’s NSP.

Today, Indonesia did not have any kinds of strategy for its defense and security planning. The Defense White Paper could only establsihed by years later—despite the reformation has occurred in 1998. Later, the Indonesian Government’s formulation for National Security Policy should be analyzed comprehensively. Therefore, the Government should provide the National Security Policy which included every aspect. The Government should formulate the National Security Polict which reciprocates within each aspect as a whole. Grand design was an essential factor to pursue the SSR in Indonesia. Moreovre, the involvement of civil society on the NSP should be more effective in order to maintain our internal security. Finally, the so-called socially constructed mindset that Indonesia’s Military Force (TNI) was the prominent actor in establishing NSP should be changed considerably—without the good will from our Government, it could never be accomplished.