Jakarta – The Civil Society Coalition for Security Sector Reform mourns the news of the deaths of five prospective managers of Village Cooperatives/Sub-district Cooperatives (KDKMP) and the Red and White Fisher People's Cooperatives (KNMP) while undergoing basic military training (latsarmil) at Indonesian Military (TNI) facilities in several locations.
According to the Coalition, this is a tragedy resulting from the serious consequences of a flawed policy regarding the military's approach to civilian space. They are urging an evaluation and halt to the militarisation of civilian spaces and programs.
"This tragedy is a serious consequence of a policy that was flawed from the beginning because it forced a military approach into civilian space without any basis of need, without relevance, and without justification that is accountable", the coalition said in a press release on Saturday June 27.
The Coalition is made up of several civil society organisations including Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) and affiliated regional offices, Amnesty International Indonesia (AII), the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), the Indonesian Women's Coalition (KPI) and the All Indonesia Student Executive Council (BEM SI).
The Coalition believes that the deaths of the five prospective KDKMP/KNMP managers further demonstrates that it is inappropriate to haphazardly apply a military education and training system on civilians.
"There is no connection between professionalism in managing cooperatives and military training", they said in the press release.
"The competence of cooperative managers is built through mastery of organisational governance, participatory leadership, accountability, financial literacy, and community empowerment, not through military training", they continued.
They believe the involvement of the TNI in implementing the KDKMP/KNMP program is inappropriate and contradicts the spirit of security sector reform.
Aside from this, they believe this involvement raises legal issues because it falls outside the TNI's primary mandate as stipulated by law.
"This policy also demonstrates the increasingly widespread practice of the militarisation of civilian space. The government seems to assume that every civil governance issue can be resolved through a military approach, yet civil organisations and military institutions have completely different characteristics, functions and goals", they asserted.
They see that when civilian programs are implemented with a militaristic approach, it has the potential to erode the democratic values that are the foundation of civilian leadership.
"The military environment is built on the principles of command, hierarchy, and obedience, which are indeed relevant to the national defence function. Conversely, civilian organisations need space for critical thinking, creativity, innovation, dialogue, argumentation, and participatory decision-making", they said.
"Transferring military culture into civilian organisations will only create a leadership style that is authoritative, anti-criticism, minimises dialogue, and prioritises obedience over rational and collaborative problem solving", the Coalition continued.
According to the Coalition, the tragic deaths of the five prospective KDKMP/KNMP managers reinforces criticism of various government policies that continue to incorporate a military approach into civilian affairs.
"We believe the Red and White Village Cooperatives manager training program has been conceptually flawed from the outset because it was built on the mistaken assumption that military discipline is synonymous with professionalism in civilian organisations. The tragedy that killed five participants further confirms that this assumption is not only erroneous but also dangerous", they said.
And it is not only in the KDKMP/KNMP programs, they also called for an end to the military approach in other civilian programs, including the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) program.
"Because the practice of militarising civilian policies not only deviates from the security sector reform agenda, but also blurs the functional boundaries between defence institutions and civilian institutions in a democratic state". they said.
Defence Ministry response
Earlier at a press conference on Saturday, the Defence Ministry (Kemhan) finally revealed the reason prospective KDKMP/KNMP managers need to participate in military training.
The head of the Ministry of Defence's Human Resources Development Agency (BPSDM), Major General Ketut Gede Wetan Pastia, said that military training is applied to ensure prospective managers possess a high level of discipline and the ability to work under pressure.
"This national defence and managerial training is aimed at developing character, discipline, leadership, integrity, cooperation, responsibility, professionalism, the ability to work under pressure, along with a spirit of community service", said Pastia at the Ministry of Defence offices in Central Jakarta as quoted by the Antara state news agency.
He explained that prospective KDKMP and KNMP managers must possess these diverse skills because they will eventually manage the circulation of public funds through cooperatives.
According to Pastia, with strong leadership and professionalism, the cooperatives they lead are expected to be a determining factor in strengthening the people's economy in the villages.
"A strong people's economy is part of national resilience. Therefore, the formation of prospective cooperative managers with character, integrity, discipline, and having a leadership spirit is an import part of this", he said.
Regarding the numerous physical activities and semi-military training during the military training, Pastia emphasised that this was not intended to transform cooperative managers into soldiers.
"The emphasis is not on physical ability, but rather on developing mentality, character, responsibility, fighting spirit, cooperation, and problem-solving skills", said Pastia.
Regarding the death of the five participants due to the military training activities, he claimed that his office would conduct a thorough evaluation.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed that it would take preventative measures to ensure that the training material is tailored to the individual circumstances of each participant. (team/kid)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Koalisi Sipil Desak Setop Militerisasi Pelatihan SPPI Kopdes-KNMP".]
