Written by: Aulia Fitri Rosadi & Kevin Tan
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This year, we are going to celebrate the 70th year of Indonesia National Military Forces (TNI) Commemoration. 70 years is not a short period of time. Some of us might forgot the contributions that the TNI has given to Indonesia, but we should not.
Since the starting point of Indonesia’s Independence until now, TNI has contributed a lot in protecting the existence as a nation. Without them, Indonesia cannot maintain our unity as a nation this day.  There is also one more thing to be appreciated, the fact that TNI has managed to apply the so called ‘TNI Internal Reform’ post 1998 Reformation.
It means that strengthening our army through military modernization is important, in order to protect our nation and to maximize the main duty of the TNI through War Military Operation and Military Operation Other than War.
Former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has arranged a military modernization program called Minimum Essential Force (MEF) or minimum posture of defense force in 2009. This program expected to be run in three phases of strategic plans (Renstra). The first phase was run in 2009 to 2014, the second phase from 2015 to 2019, and the last phase in 2020-2024. Today, we are in the second phase called ‘2nd Strategic Plan’. The Second phase of MEF is run in different government administration. People then questioned the continuity of this MEF program. Reflected to current strategic environment, it is very crucial for TNI to revitalized their military weapon system (alutsista). Due to the fact that we are currently facing a strategic issue related to the potential threat of the South China Sea Region, and other non-traditional security issues such as illegal fishing, illegal logging, people smugling, drugs smuggling etc.
President Joko Widodo once highlighted that the priority of Indonesia’s defense policy is to strenghten the self-reliance in military equipment by continue to revolutionize the country’s defense industry. Talking about self-reliance in military equipment, it is reflected in the 2012 Law on Defense Industry. It stated that the country need to continue to boost domestic defense industries to support the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI). The law on Defense Industry more or less highlighted about the desired 2024 fulfilled MEF. Self-reliance in military equipment looks good on paper but difficult to apply.
Lets move back to the 1st Strategic Plan during Yudhoyono’s administration. Although significant progresses had been made, especially on ToT (transfer of technology) and production of local military weapon system (alutsista), there are facts that Indonesia still need foreign-made weapons. The capability of Local Defense Industries, such as PT PINDAD, PT PAL and PT DI are still lacking of productivity to provide the needs of its military weaponry. Besides, it is known that some of The Indonesian military weapon system are in a very poor condition and mostly rely on human power. Compared to neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, their weapon systems rely on the third-generation warfare weapons technology and Information technology. We are saying that the country still need times to be finally achieved its so called self-reliance and sophisticated defense industry, and that is why it is urgent to continue the MEF Program.
President Jokowi in the second phase of MEF Strategic plan need to generate specific guidelines to help the country to boost its defense industry to be able to produce weapons. Good news is, last January President Jokowi announced $55 million in government funding to boost PT PINDAD while visiting its facilities. The defense policies of President Jokowi has to align with his well known goal in creating global maritime fulcrum.
In APBN 2015, it has been stated that our government will provide 7% from all the budget to Defense sector with the total amount of Rp. 96,8 T. It has been shown that there is a significant increase around 13,6 Million, if we compared with the last year.
The increased of government budget towards defense sector should be highly appreciated. The important thing to be underlined is the budget priority on the defense industry, the long term benefits must be visible, especially for the continuity of the MEF program. 7% Defense budget of APBN is an ideal amount for the MEF Program to be run.
