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seskoad
10th July 2003, 18:26
Indonesian army has control power since '68 after winning over people's heart againts communism. After presidents Suharto (former army general) was thrown down. Most civilians pointed all sins that made by army. Dualism of armed forces was implemented in Indonesia due to PKI (Indonesian communism party) action during '59 - '66. The concept is that no more misleading in ideology which is Pancasila (5 pillars including religious, human right, unify, social and prosperity). However in the real life, armed forces went too far. During the regime time, they took over most of civilian goverment position and also the domination in parlement. But now in reformation era, they are trying to be more profesional army which not really involved in politic and civilian government.

My question is, how far that governmental process to seperate armed forces from politics?

All I know that every action taken by armed forces must be related to politics. I remember the movie "patton", he said "you know that I am a soldier and not interest in politics". Still what he said and did, politics appears.

Mitch Saret
10th July 2003, 19:27
In what Patton was saying he meant that he had no political ambitions after the war.

Basically, the way we have it here in the U.S., is the politicians, namely the president and congress, make policy. It is the job of the military to carry out that policy. In reality, the military also advises on specific actions and how best to deal with them.

Remember, that is just the basic way it is supposed to work.

Soulend
10th July 2003, 20:53
One of our safeguards against the military gaining political power is that the top men in the military are not generals and admirals but civilians, i.e. Commander in Chief (the President), Secretary of Defence, Secretary of the Navy, etc. The military does not exist as a separate political entity as it seems to be in some other countries, simply an arm of the government with no power over civilian politics. An active duty military member, even a general, can never hold a political position which is not specifically a military post.

Yes, action by the military is related to politics, because it is the president and congress that order the action to take place.