Indonesia’s experience with security sector reform (SSR) has been driven largely by an insider-led process and marked by relatively limited direct external intervention. This paper, published by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, discusses major factors, achievements and challenges that have characterised Indonesia’s SSR. Given the local nature of SSR in Indonesia, engagement of external actors needs to be carefully attuned to domestic political dynamics and local culture.
From 1966 until the late 1990s, Indonesia was ruled by the authoritarian ethos of the New Order. Under this regime, the armed forces were systematically involved in abuses of power in order to support the ruling powers and maintain internal stability and security. Beginning with the student-led national reform movement in 1997-1998, SSR was initiated in parallel with Indonesia’s broader democratisation movement.
Military reform has been an essential aspect of Indonesian SSR. It has pursued such goals as the total disengagement of the military from politics, focus on defending the country, ending repression and professionalising the military. It has also addressed individual and institutional cultural or behavioural change. Indonesian SSR has included internal military reform, separation of police from military, reorientation of the military to defence, and police to internal security, and stronger parliamentary oversight. Its process has been marked by the following:
- The military has sought to abandon its direct political role, carefully designed a reform agenda and contributed to the broader national political reform process.
- While the military has generally supported the national reform process, some military elites express ongoing concerns about the capacity and accountability of the political elite.
- Public participation in political life has substantially improved, a free media has emerged and the climate of fear of the state security apparatus has declined.
- The Indonesian Working Group on Security Sector Reform (IWG-SSR) has performed a critical civilian advocacy role on SSR issues and served as a hub for wider civil society involvement in SSR.
- From its inception, the reform process has been locally owned and involved substantial efforts to build confidence and trust among reform participants.
- Outsiders’ involvement in SSR per se has been very limited. International donor programmes have generally occurred under the banner of democratic development.
Despite substantial SSR gains, the following issues constitute serious impediments to future SSR in Indonesia:
- the uncertain commitment to reform by the political elite;
- the still-incomplete democratisation process;
- lack of civilian expertise on security sector matters;
- the unfinished process of separating the police from the military;
- lack of sensitivity towards the local cultural setting sometimes displayed by some external SSR actors, which can lead to intrusive and insensitive external interventions; and
- lack of specific local and external political agreements concerning SSR cooperation, which sometimes hampers the building of trust and confidence between society and the security establishment.
