Generals and Business in Indonesia

Abstract

THE INDONESIAN ARMY does not restrict itself to a narrowly conception of its role. During the war against the returning Dutch after I945 the nationalist army was less concerned to defeat the enemy in battle than to mobilise popular support. In his reflections on guerilla warfare written in the early I950s, General A. H. Nasution expressed the view that guerilla cannot just emphasize fighting but must also stress political-psychological and socio-economic aspects.... A military leader will fail if he limits himself or is limited to military matters alone because he will be unable to carry out political, propaganda and economic warfare which are absolutely essential for victory. ' During the years immediately after the transfer of sovereignty in I949 the army stood on the political sidelines, but with the declaration of martial law in 1957 the army's non-military role expanded rapidly. During the Guided Democracy period the army was, with the Communist Party, one of the two main organised political forces and in its doctrine formulated in I965 it described itself as both a and force. As a socio-political force, the army's activities covered the ideological, political, social, economic, cultural and religious fields.'2 When the army took full power after forcing President Sukarno from office, this concept of the Armed Forces' role was popularised as the Dwi Fungsi (dual function) of the Armed Forces and later, in sanscritized form, as the Dwi Dharma (dual duty). Thus the army makes no attempt to portray itself as having temporarily taken power to protect the state in a crisis. As the army leaders declared in 1966, army does not have an exclusively military duty but is concerned with all fields of social life.3 The primary purpose of the Dwi Diarma doctrine has been to legitimise the army's activities in