‘Guns’ vs ‘Butter’ Discourse in KRI Nanggala-402 Tragedy

The sinking of KRI Nanggala-402 was mourned among Indonesians, who said goodbye to the 53 Indonesian Navy (TNI AL) personnel and great sons of this nation. KRI Nanggala-402 itself was an important part of the Indonesian Navy with its long service period of 41 years.

As a form of respect, the government bestowed awards in the form of promotions to the 53 crew members of the KRI Nanggala-402 who died in their mission and provided three honorary medals for their dedication in maintaining the country\'s resilience. The three medals are Satyalencana Ksatria Yudha, Satyalencana Jalasena Narariya and Satyalencana Dharma Samudra. President Jokowi has also provided scholarships for the children of the crew so that they can complete their education up to the tertiary level. In fact, the Defense Ministry has guaranteed them admission to Taruna Nusantara High School and the Defense University, two educational institutions within the Ministry of Defense.

After the sinking of KRI Nanggala-402, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto hopes that the rejuvenation of the alutsista (main weaponry system) can be carried out immediately. The defense minister promised to immediately propose schemes and strategic steps to accelerate the rejuvenation of defense equipment. Apart from being presented to the President, this scheme will also be presented to the House of Representatives (DPR) in order to support the budgetary policy for defense equipment to an ideal number.

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^ The Urgency of Defense

^ Issues beyond Budget

Within the community itself, there were various sentiments expressed in response to this disaster, including raising funds; although this is not necessary because the purchase of defense equipment comes from the state budget, which also constitutes taxpayers’ money. This fund-raising phenomenon refreshes our memory on the discourse of a theory that is closely related to the defense quality factor: Guns vs Butter.

This theory actually brings up the old debate about which is more important for a nation: spending in the defense sector (defense spending) or strengthening budget allocations in the welfare sector (welfare expenditures), especially the education and health sectors.

The specific conditions of each country have a major influence on policies related to budget allocations. History has shown that the increase in spending in the defense sector will increase when the potential for war or military conflict is in sight. On the other hand, the expenditure budget in the defense sector will automatically decline in peacetime — this policy will be accompanied by an increase in the allocation of spending in the public investment sector and the social welfare of the people.

The debate regarding budget allocation is never easy because the state budget management mechanism will enter into a broader discourse on how the quality of human assets (human capital) will affect the quality of the defense system; and because these two sectors are public sectors, the balance of budget allocations becomes a dilemma.

The high quality of human beings without the support of defenses will only lead to the classical conception of physical defense alone. On the other hand, sophisticated defense tools without the quality of capable human resources are redundant.

Defense budget

For the 2021 budget ceiling, the government has allocated Rp 134,254 trillion for the Defense Ministry, an increase of 14.12 percent compared to last year\'s budget. This year\'s Defense Ministry budget is also the largest in the last decade.

However, it must be understood that the majority of the 2021 Ministry of Defense\'s budget is allocated for management support programs. The amount reaches Rp 74,983 trillion or 55.2 percent of the total budget. The allocation for the modernization program for defense equipment, non-defense equipment and defense facilities and infrastructure was followed by a value of Rp 39.02 trillion or 29.06 percent of the total budget. The rest is for other needs in the form of operations, training and education.

Also read: The Urgency of Defense

Although the Defense Ministry is one of the ministries that receives the largest budget from the State Budget (APBN), the current defense budget is not yet ideal because it is in the range of 0.78 percent to the ratio of gross domestic product (GDP). Even then, the largest part of this allocation is for management support, including personnel expenses. As a result, the Defense Ministry does not have much fiscal space to modernize defense equipment, which means that the Indonesian Military (TNI) does not have the luxury of operating the best defense equipment. The limitation of the budget line for the modernization of defense equipment will also have an impact on the defense equipment maintenance process (routine and periodic maintenance) and the TNI\'s combat readiness in safeguarding the country\'s sovereignty.

Referring to World Bank data as of 2019, compared to other countries in the region alone, Indonesia\'s defense budget is among the lowest. Malaysia allocates 1 percent of GDP, Singapore 3.2 percent, Thailand 1.3 percent, and even Timor Leste also 1 percent of GDP.

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

Rows of combat and transport helicopters belonging to the Indonesian Army at the Apache Hangar, Army Aviation Center, Semarang City, Central Java, Thursday (18/3/2021). The AH-64E Apache helicopter gunship is the latest weaponry system imported from America.

Sovereignty at stakes

The Indonesian Defense Budget is naturally large because of its vast territory and natural resources that must be protected. Weak military force will weaken the bargaining position in diplomacy, especially when it comes to violations of the territory and state sovereignty. The security situation in Indonesia itself is heavily influenced by geopolitical and geostrategic conditions in the region; one of which is the sharpening of the potential conflict in the South China Sea (SCS).

The purchase of defense equipment must of course conform to the growing security trends in geo-political and geostrategic spheres. In that sense, our defense system as a nation should promote the reality of international relations, in which relations between countries are anarchic, so that the readiness of our defense system and our resilience is at stake for our space for sovereignty because the potential for conflict is always in sight.

Weak military force will weaken the bargaining position in diplomacy, especially when it comes to violations of the territory and state sovereignty.

We certainly don\'t want to repeat the burden of history when our defense and resilience capacities are at their lowest point as an effect of the military embargo imposed on Indonesia. The very minimal readiness of the TNI defense system at that time did not even open the opportunity for our military personnel to take a big part in humanitarian assistance to the Acehnese people who were victims of the ferocity of the December 2004 tsunami.

Independence of weaponry

Within these spaces of sovereignty, problems in the procurement and modernization of defense equipment have emerged and of course are heavily colored by the global context. Apart from all this, the modernization of defense equipment should focus on the independence of defense equipment, therefore popular support -- both from the House and the wider community -- in overcoming the issue of defense budgets is one of the keys.

In addition, support from the business world is also urgently needed to open up investment in the defense industry, as happened in the United States and Europe. Cooperation between strategic industrial enterprises and the private sector, for example in R&D development, should be part of consideration as long as the APBN does not meet the ideal defense budget. In Western countries, it is the private sector that has become the backbone of the defense industry because it has been proven capable of creating multiple impacts on the national economic sector. The existence of the Job Creation Law is a legal basis for private participation in the defense industry.

Improving defense budget management to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of budget use is another key in overcoming budget problems. The Defense Ministry will make every effort to comply with the principles of good governance and clean government; in that sense, transparency and accountability are maintained.

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Herindra Wakil Menteri Pertahanan

The next key is maintaining the welfare of soldiers and their families for the professionalism development. Learning opportunities — in addition to the path of leadership — must be opened as wide as possible so that the TNI has a lot of experts (pool of experts) in various fields to anticipate the possibility of future warfare. Running simultaneously with this step is the concentration of recruitment of professionals who can support the TNI\'s duties as part of the Reserve Component Program in accordance with Law No. 23/2019 on Human Resources Management.

Herindra, Deputy Defense Minister of the Republic of Indonesia.

This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswoko.