Legitimizing Military Rule: Indonesian Armed Forces Ideology, 1958–2000, and: Soeharto's Armed Forces: Problems of Civil Military Relations in Indonesia (review)

Nearly ten years after President Soeharto's resignation, the legacies of military rule continue to haunt Indonesia. This is in part a reflection of how deeply the military penetrated almost all spheres of Indonesian society, but in part too a product of how poorly many civilians understand the institution over which they now seek to exercise supremacy. For this reason, the English translations of these two volumes by Salim Said are a welcome addition to the literature and will contribute to current policy debates within Indonesia.

Legitimizing Military Rule explores the origins and evolution of Dwifungsi (the Dual Function), the doctrine by which the Indonesian military claimed the right to play a political as well as a traditional defence role. The author argues that the development and longevity of Dwifungsi depended not only on the military's "self-perception" that it had a right as well as a duty to be involved in Indonesian politics" but also "the power balance between the military and civilian politicians" (p. 7). Chapter one examines military doctrine under Guided Democracy (1958–1965), examining the origins of Dwifungsi, the military's increasing involvement in politics, and the ironic adoption of leftist discourse. Chapters two and three consider doctrinal debates within the military during the New Order. Said argues that during the late 1960s and 1970s military ideology was primarily concerned with legitimizing direct engagement in politics, but during the last decade of the New Order an increasing number of critiques of military doctrine and practice emerged from retired officers, the middle class and even internal military seminars. The fourth chapter considers changes in military doctrine from the time of Soeharto's resignation in May 1998 until 2000, while a postscript updates the discussion through 2005.

In addition to extensive and judicious use of the voluminous literature on the Indonesian military, this volume is enriched by discussion of many internal military documents that are not publicly available, as well as revealing interviews conducted by the author with senior officers. The focus throughout these chapters is on analysis of military documents and statements by senior military officers regarding doctrine, with scant discussion of either events (e.g. the 1965 killings are only alluded to in passing) or the far-reaching penetration of the military into state apparatuses.

The second volume, Soeharto's Armed Forces, is a collection of Professor Said's articles on civil-military relations written (with one exception dating from 1987) over the past decade. It includes articles first published in English-language journals (Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science, Asian Survey, Pacific Affairs), shorter pieces written for the Indonesian media, and previously unpublished papers presented at international conferences and seminars organized by the Army Staff and Command School and the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas). Topics include the legacy of the revolutionary experience, relations between the military and Soeharto, the military and Islam, a number of works considering the Indonesian experience in comparative perspective and a thoughtful essay on the crucial issue of the military's territorial structure.

Taken together, these works argue quite correctly that doctrine not only informs military involvement in politics, but is shaped by the wider constellation of social forces. Specialists will be interested in the detailed accounts of how doctrine shifted over the course of four decades, often following rather than informing the military's official ideological position. The general reader will be more interested in Said's interpretation of changes in civil-military relations after Soeharto's resignation. The author argues that although the "New Paradigm of the Political Role of the Military" introduced in 2000 was no more than a "sophisticated, adjusted...