President Prabowo Subianto has emphasized that Indonesia needs a strong military to ensure independence and protect sovereignty and resources. He inaugurated troops in West Java and initiated militaristic training for his cabinet. One hundred new battalions have been established, with plans for 500 over five years, plus new special forces and marine units. The 100 battalions are designated to assist agriculture, animal husbandry and food security and will not receive combat training. The defence ministry declined to release battalion sizes. A recent law allows armed forces personnel to hold more civilian posts, prompting concerns about a resurgence of dwifungsi and military encroachment into civilian domains.
A big nation like us, Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto told the rank and file before him, needs a strong military. No nation can be independent without having a strong military. In a speech before inaugurating military troops in West Java this month, Prabowo the former special forces commandant proclaimed that Indonesia must strengthen its defences to protect the nation's sovereignty and resources.
Prabowo kicked off his presidency with a militaristic boot camp for his cabinet and now, just shy of a year in the job, the retired general is beefing up boots on the ground. One hundred new battalions have been established with plans for 500 over the next five years with new units also for the special forces and marines. The 100 new battalions have been established to assist in agriculture, animal husbandry and food security, and will not receive combat training.
Indonesia threw off the shackles of authoritarian rule in 1998, when Suharto, the country's dictator and Prabowo's former father-in-law, was forced to step down after 32 years in power. As part of the reform era that followed, the doctrine of dwifungsi, meaning dual function and which refers to the role of the military in security and civilian affairs, was dismantled.
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