When Indonesia's Dignity Trampled by Its Neighboring Countries

Jakarta, Indonesia (News Today) - The military’s Minimum Essential Force (MEF) concept is a matter of dignity so that it should be realized to uphold the country’s honor, a legislator said.

"If this continues to be ignored it would cause the Indonesian National Defense Forces (TNI) to suffer from lacking armaments, low quality and quantity, particularly in the face of various provocations both from within and outside," Fayakhun Andiradi of the House of Representatives (DPR)’s Commission I on defense affairs, said here on Monday.

He said that the Ministry of Defense actually had made a careful calculation regarding the minimum requirement of weaponry as formulated in the MEF form.

"It seems that the TNI MEF is already the same as that made by the defense ministry for a period of six years. However, it the weapons are bought in stages it would be difficult to meet the MEF standards," he said.

He said that the MEF concept was a need for today not for six years to come. "This is a matter of the nation’s price which has been trampled on by neighboring countries," he said.

Fayakhun said there were many provocative maneuvers in the border areas but Indonesia was not able to respond to them with at least equally balanced maneuvers. "This is because we feel we are outclassed in terms of armaments (MEF). In the era of Soekarno and Soeharto, we have never experienced this and no one had the guts to snap at us," he said.

Source : kompas

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