Novan Iman Santosa
The public image of the Indonesian Army's territorial command (Koter) is negative due to rampant misuse of its authorities during the New Order regime - a period when the Army focused its services more on its sociopolitical power than its military capability.
Therefore, it is justifiable if some elements of the society were shocked when Gen. George Toisutta made a statement soon after his installment as the Army chief that he would establish two more Regional Military Commands (Kodam) in Kalimantan and Papua.
George reasoned that Kalimantan and Papua needed to be equipped with better border management and supervision as each region is too large to be handled by one Kodam only. The Kodam VII Tanjungpura oversees the four provinces in Kalimantan, while the Kodam XVII Trikora oversees Papua and West Papua provinces.
Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Djoko Santoso has also confirmed the plan saying that with the current structure, the chain of command from a Kodam commander in Kalimantan and Papua to its respective field units is lengthy and time-consuming.
While it may not be a big problem for the Army to establish another Kodam in Kalimantan, it is a different case in Papua as the military, especially the Army, has been the target of criticism over cases of rights abuse and arbitrary violence there.
Critics, however, often forget that Koter has combat-oriented functions. Kodam is a strategic defense compartment which also develops defense reserves and support components among the civilians should the need arise.
These principles are embodied in the Indonesian defense doctrine and strategy, the People's Total Defense System or Sishanrata, placing the Army as the last line of defense while observing the country's archipelagic geography.
Dissolving Koter would simply mean writing a new defense doctrine and strategy. Each Kodam usually has a number of infantry battalions, which are augmented by artillery and cavalry battalions and sometimes has zeni (engineering) battalions. Each Kodam also has a Raider battalion, an infantry battalion with higher qualification than a regular infantry battalion.
Many critics have eagerly trumpeted the dissolution of Koter, from Kodam to its lower units of Korem, Kodim and Koramil, simply for the sake of dissolving the command without offering any plans on what to do with the affected soldiers.
A better, possible solution would be to reduce as much of Koter's sociopolitical units as possible into combat and combat-support units. In this scheme, officers and soldiers will be transferred from desk to field duties in combat or combat-support units.
A Korem, for example, is commanded by a colonel whose counterpart in the field unit is a brigade commander leading three infantry battalions.
Currently, a number of Kodams have their own brigades in addition to those owned by the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad).
Therefore, a Korem commander could oversee three infantry battalions plus one each artillery, cavalry and zeni battalions, plus other units of other functions such as administration, transport, health and communications.
The components of this brigade could be dispersed inside a Korem's jurisdiction, a province outside Java and a group of regencies and municipalities in Java and Aceh. Yogyakarta, for example, is a Korem under Kodam IV Diponegoro headquartered in Semarang, Central Java.
In the regency or municipality, a lieutenant colonel commands a Kodim whose counterpart leads an infantry battalion consisting of three to six companies. Koramil is responsible for a kecamatan or district and is led by a captain whose counterpart leads an infantry company, consisting of three to four platoons.
Assuming each province has its own brigade made of transferred soldiers and officers, then we will have 33 additional brigades scattered across the country ensuring swifter response to any military threats.
While these provincial brigades will only be skeletal in organization when compared to field units, they are the first line of defense against both traditional and non-traditional threats. The recent arrest of suspected armed militants in Leupeung, Aceh, showed that the Koter unit can contribute also to internal security by relaying intelligence to the police.
The skeletal brigades will also function as land deterrence in addition to existing regular brigades under Kodam and Kostrad, which can be deployed nationally to hotspots.
The provincial brigades will mainly focus on their respective provinces due to their lack of strength without closing the door for any deployment outside their home provinces if the need arises.
Each provincial brigade will differ in its feature and strength. Smaller provinces such as East and West Nusa Tenggara will have even "thinner" brigade organizations than those in Sumatra, for example, due to smaller population. Units based near hills or jungles or beaches will have to master tactics and techniques that are different to those based in an urban setting as the threats are also different.
Additionally, there are provinces with strong maritime features, such as Riau Islands, Bangka-Belitung, Maluku and North Maluku, as the provincial brigades will have to emphasize more on naval aspects. Nonetheless, all provinces in Indonesia have considerable coastlines making it mandatory to pay more attention to naval aspects such as knowing the ideal spot for possible amphibious assault.
Other than its duties as part of the defense strategic compartment, Koter units can also be used in preparing the reserve and support components depending on their level.
A Koramil, for example, can provide "bela negara" training for senior high school students through boot camps during school breaks where students can learn nationalism and discipline, Kodim can provide basic discipline training for senior high school graduates and Korem provides basic military training such as for Student Regiment (Menwa) units at local universities.
In case of an invasion or aggression, a skeletal provincial brigade is to be reinforced into a full-size unit by recruiting trained civilians before the arrival of reinforcement units, which could come from unaffected, neighboring provinces or Kostrad units.
Unfortunately, Indonesia has yet to have a law regulating reserve components, which can tap the extensive Koter network for training civilians.
Koter units are also best suited to humanitarian missions in their territories such as in a natural disaster, which requires swift handling.
The presence of a zeni unit in each Koter level is mandatory to provide quick relief. Zeni units can also help in developing infrastructure in remote areas such as in the iconic TNI Manunggal Masuk Desa program.
A country as huge as Indonesia needs to fully optimize its defense resources instead of laying them to waste. While the transformation from desk to combat-oriented duty might require huge funding in the beginning, it would reduce even higher costs in totally disbanding the Koter and demobilizing the soldiers.
The writer is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post and is currently pursuing his Master's degree in defense management at Indonesian Defense University.
Source: TheJakartaPost.com
