December 5, 2009 • 9:09 am
| Evan A. Laksmana | Jakarta, 5 December 2009 |
The Indonesian Department of Defence (DoD) recently issued a series of proposals that it hopes could be implemented in the next few months: Raise the defence budget and troop salaries, restructure existing debt, improve defence management and planning practices, revitalise local defence industries, integrate maritime security authority, continue military modernisation, and further secure border areas.
It also promises to complete the ongoing transfer and management of the 3.3 trillion rupiah ($484 million) worth of military-owned assets and business units, and will propose 22 Bills in Parliament in the next four years. The DoD’s plans reveal several key trends.
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Filed under: Defense Management
November 2, 2009 • 2:08 pm
| Evan A. Laksmana | Jakarta, 2 November 2009 |
We are now only less than a month away from the UN summit on climate Change in Copenhagen to hammer out a new post-Kyoto deal to save the planet.
Meanwhile, recent reports show that in Southeast Asia, one of the most susceptible regions to climate change, more than 750,000 people have died between 1998 and 2009 from natural disasters.
Indonesia too will soon see firsthand the increases in the severity of drought, flooding, forest fires, rising sea level and extreme weather conditions.
Yet, with this impending disaster, the then defense minister Juwono Sudarsono said recently his department had no specific national security agenda for climate change.
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Filed under: Civil-Military Relations, Defense Management
December 9, 2008 • 3:47 am
| Evan A. Laksmana | Singapore, 9 December 2008 |
Vice President Jusuf Kalla remarked during the recent IndoDefence Expo 2008 that the strengthening of Indonesia’s defense sector by prioritizing operational readiness and the main weapons system remains a national imperative.
This statement, however, does not explicitly acknowledge the underlying problem of an underfunded military. The possible takeover of the Indonesian Military (TNI) businesses and the aging weaponry displayed during the Marine Corps anniversary recently are examples of how crucial the insufficient defense budget is.
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Filed under: Civil-Military Relations, Defense Management
