Widodo moves to rein in military chief

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo reproached his military chief in a meeting last week amid concerns the commander was "out of control" after he unilaterally suspended defense cooperation with Australia, two sources briefed on the meeting said.

Widodo's intervention highlights alarm about General Gatot Nurmantyo, who promotes the notion that Indonesia is besieged by "proxy wars", in which foreign states seek to undermine the nation by manipulating nonstate actors.

Analysts and some of Widodo's aides are also concerned that Nurmantyo is laying the groundwork for an expansion of the military's role in civilian affairs in country and may have political ambitions himself.

Widodo, the first president from outside the military and political establishment, needed to move quickly to demonstrate his authority as the country's commander-in-chief, one senior official said.

"With Gatot, the feeling is like he's a little out of control," he said.

Nurmantyo declared a rupture in military ties after an Indonesian officer found "offensive" teaching material while on a language training course in Australia late last year.

The material suggested that Indonesia's Papua province should be independent and mocked the nation's state ideology, Pancasila, according to Nurmantyo.

Caught off guard

One of the officials said Widodo and others in the government were caught off guard when local media reported Nurmantyo's announcement of the suspension in military ties with Australia.

While the general was not formally reprimanded, the official said, Widodo served him a warning during a meeting at a presidential palace in Bogor, outside Jakarta.

The meeting was confirmed by another senior government aide, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

Nurmantyo declined requests to be interviewed and a military spokesman declined to comment on the meeting.

The senior government official said: "We suspect that Gatot is exploiting this incident for his own political agenda, his own political ambition."

"He has been making many public appearances and speeches lately," he said. "Frankly, we think many of them about proxy wars and the threat to Indonesia are absolutely ridiculous."

(China Daily 01/10/2017 page11)