In Developing Indonesia, the Best Offense Is a Formidable Defense

(JG Graphic/Josep Tri Ronggo Laksono)

In his conversation with the Jakarta Globe published on June 18, Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro asserted that “Indonesia wants peace, but we must also prepare for war.”

It is not very clear what he is really up to when he said this, but when one tries to associate the statement with the main topic of his conversation, it can be assumed that he was referring to the role of Indonesia’s defense industry during peace as well as in wartime.

Unlike the US, where the emergent peace and wartime defense industry was an unprecedented event in the history of the American republic (the US-Soviet Cold War in the late 1940s and Korean war in1950), the emergence of a significant portion of Indonesia’s peace and wartime defense industry has no historical link, as Indonesia enjoyed a relatively secured external environment and is far from being involved in a total war against a foreign country.

However, the quest for Indonesia to develop a reliable and sustainable defense industry to help the Indonesian Military (TNI), as the main user, to effectively defend the country and bolster its military prowess, inspired the government to put a huge investment in the national defense industry to upgrade the TNI’s outdated armaments.

The significant development in the country’s strategic environment serves as an impetus for Indonesia to further develop its defense industry. Further good signs to revitalize the defense industry included when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2010 issued a decree establishing the National Committee on Defense Industry Policy.

Policies are forward looking. They determine outcomes and requirements that can only be ascertained in light of events that have yet to occur. Indonesia has yet to encounter serious events, at least as seen by the government, that can be regarded as a threat to national security. However, Indonesia’s continuous and consistent path toward making the defense industry as part of the strategic element in the country’s defense planning should be perceived as policy steps in the country’s preparation for war.

I remember vividly well the assessment of Maj. Gen. Sonny E.S. Prasetyo (now director general of defense strategy at the Defense Ministry) during his class session at Defense University in 2012 that the main objective for the country to acquire modern and sophisticated weapons is to prepare for war.

The statement of Purnomo seemed to be congruent with the assessment of Sonny. This suggests that peacetime defense industry products serve as a means not only to elevate the country’s defense outlook but also to enhance the deterrent function of major military equipment. Wartime, if it does occur, will see the reliability and effectiveness of the country’s defense industry products in sustaining the performance and endurance of the military.

The government’s commitment to revitalize and mobilize the defense industry is to gear toward more self reliance on domestic products. Around 40 percent of the government’s projected military spending will go to the domestic industry. But the growing interdependence in international relations due to the wave of globalization has forced countries to seek strategic partnership with more advanced countries in the realm of the defense industry. This is to say that Indonesia needs to have a “second hand” to boost its defense industry.

It is for this reason Indonesia initiated cooperation with certain countries in the area of the defense industry. The latest policy steps are an attempt by legislature to ratify the agreement between Indonesia and Turkey (signed in June 2010) on defense industry cooperation. It was during a hearing with experts that I suggested the law on the ratification of the agreement be based on the believe that Indonesia should gain more strategic benefits from the agreement. The agreement, if implemented, should therefore be gearing Indonesia to a positive sum rather than to a zero sum end.

When Purnomo said that the Committee on Defense Industry Policy (CDIP) identified the domestic defense industry’s weaknesses, as reported by the Jakarta Globe on June 18 — namely insufficient capital, the lack of competition, minimal experience, limitations on research and development capability and the lack of synergy between different industries — he may be suggesting that Indonesia is still far from developing what one calls defense industrial base (DIB).

The DIB is also known as the defense industrial and technological base. To political scientists, DIB is referred to as the government’s industrial assets, which may have a direct or indirect importance and contribution for the mass production of equipment for the country’s armed forces. This is to say that if Indonesia can develop a reliable and viable defense industrial base, this will certainly be one of the main features in the country’s defense policy and diplomacy. However, we do not know how many more years Indonesia needs to wait before it can really develop DIB. If it will be there, how prepared is the Indonesian defense industrial base to meet the growing needs of the TNI in coming decades?

Speaking on the matter of the defense industry, one remembers Malaysia’s concept paper on Asean Defense Industry Collaboration (ADIC). This concept paper aims to reduce defense imports by Asean members from $25 billion per year to $12.5 billion. The fifth Asean Defense Ministerial Meeting (ADMM), held in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam, on May 7, 2013, adopted the paper.

The question is how can Indonesia be an important part of the ADIC if the government fails to address its domestic defense industry weaknesses. The government needs to make significant investments to develop its defense industrial bases. Only then can it play strategic role in ADIC or demonstrate its modern defense industry and the importance of defense industry in upgrading TNI’s outdated armaments.

Bantarto Bandoro is a senior lecturer at the faculty of defense strategy at Defense University and founder of the Institute for Defense and Strategic Research (IDSR) in Jakarta.

  ♞ The Jakarta Globe