By Prashanth Parameswaran
Move would be another blow to Jakarta’s military modernization efforts.
Indonesia is planning to cut its defense budget next year for the first time in five years, raising further doubts about the Asian power’s ability to transform its military.
Despite being the world’s largest archipelagic state and its fourth most populous country, Indonesia has significantly underinvested in its military relative even to its smaller Southeast Asian neighbors. Even with sharp increases in recent years, Indonesian defense spending as a percentage of GDP was the lowest in ASEAN at 0.8 percent in 2014, well below the regional average of 2.2. percent. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had come into office pledging to increase that figure to 1.5 percent of GDP and even double the budget in 2016 as Indonesia seeks to develop a Minimum Essential Force by 2024 (See: “An Indonesian Defense Revolution Under Jokowi?”).
But in a huge blow to those ambitions, local media reports reveal that the Indonesian government plans to cut its defense allocation next year by 6.3 percent, or Rp 7 trillion ($490 million), down to Rp 95.8 trillion. This would in effect reverse a trend seen over the past few years where budgets have risen from Rp 17 trillion in 2010 to 102.3 trillion in 2015. It would also further slow the pace of Indonesia’s military modernization which is badly needed given the country’s aging systems, limited capabilities and growing aspirations to be an influential power (See: “Beyond Aspirations and Reality: Indonesian Foreign Policy After the 2014 Elections”).
Indonesia’s newly installed military chief Gatot Nurmantyo indicated that the cut was due to the weak financial position of the government arising from global currency instability (See: “What Does Indonesia’s New Military Chief Pick Mean?”).
Read the full story at The Diplomat