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Megawati Fires Shot Across SBY’s Bow, Says Budget to Blame for Ambalat Crisis
Markus Junianto Sihaloho | June 06, 2009

Presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri speaking on the Ambalat issue at the Jakarta Media Center on Friday. (Photo: Jurnasyanto Sukarno, JG) Presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri speaking on the Ambalat issue at the Jakarta Media Center on Friday. (Photo: Jurnasyanto Sukarno, JG)
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It was a contest of presidential legacies. Invoking the name of her father, founding President Sukarno, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri went on the attack on Friday, criticizing her successor over defense issues.

During a discussion regarding the long-running dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia over the Ambalat territorial waters northeast of Borneo, Megawati sniped at President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, saying that her father, President Sukarno, had allocated up to 29 percent of the national budget to the military when he was in power.

“But this [Yudhoyono] administration only provides 4 percent of the total budget for the military,” she said, claiming that the current government had forced the military to operate without up-to-date facilities.

Megawati, one of President Yudhoyono’s two opponents in his bid for re-election on July 8, said she felt ashamed that the lack of military facilities was exploited by Malaysia’s military in the case of Ambalat.

“I was sorry and felt angry to see the news coverage [of Ambalat] on TV,” Megawati said. “To watch our warships, I really felt ashamed.”

Presidential spokesman Andi Malarangeng said later that the government’s budget did not allow for further spending on new equipment and facilities for the military, with only Rp 33.6 trillion ($3.4 billion) allocated to the Armed Forces from this year’s Rp 1,000 trillion national budget.

While admitting that it was not the ideal budget for the military, he said it had fulfilled the minimum requirements of the Armed Forces.

“The rest of the total budget must be used for education, health care, agricultural and fuel subsidies, and to pay state debts,” Andi said.

“But remember, even though the government did cut the total military budget because of the global financial crisis, we did not cut the military’s operational budget, the budget for maintenance and for soldiers’ welfare.

“We only cut the budget for the procurement of new defense facilities like new submarines.”

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono had earlier said the minimum budget to ensure a fully professional military was at least Rp 100 trillion a year. In 2008, the government allocated Rp 36 trillion to the Armed Forces.

Megawati had previously said there was an urgent need to supply the military with new equipment. She and her running mate, Prabowo Subianto, a former general, pledged last month to make sufficient increases to the defense budget if elected.

Megawati, however, acknowledged that when she was in power, financial constraints had restricted her administration’s ability to purchase new equipment, but qualified that by saying a tight budget should not be cause for delaying modernization programs.

“That’s what I did when we bought Sukhois [Russian jet fighters],” she said.

Andi pointed out that Megawati’s administration had only purchased four Sukhois during her presidency, while a further six planes were added under Yudhoyono’s administration.

“And she bought them without any weaponry, which was then bought by us,” Andi said.