Abstract:
The continuously evolving strategic environment and multidimensional threats demand the
state to adapt and adopt appropriate defence policies, strategies, and doctrine. Indonesia,
based on the Defence Ministerial Law Number 19 of 2015 in which continues to pursue the
second phase of the MEF project or the Minimum Essential Force for the TNI (Tentara
Nasional Indonesia) in order to support the grand vision of the Global Maritime Fulcrum policy
or the “Poros Maritim Dunia” in which President Joko Widodo’s flagship programme. The
fulfilment of Minimum Essential Force is closely related to meeting the needs of the weapon
system and defence equipment in supporting strength, deployment and capability of defence.
This thesis aims to analyse the implementation of Phase 2 (2015-2019) of the Minimum
Essential Force strategy implemented by the Indonesian Government and to discover the
Indonesian Government’s commitment to support the development programme. The Politics of
Budget Theory will be used in order to theoretically framed the findings of this research which
answered the question of this research. It is found that the conflicting interest between defence
needs and subsidy for social welfare which the author discovered within the Indonesian House
of Legislatives (DPR-RI) because of the “parties interest” which they claimed as the “people’s
voice” then resulted to a small portion of the defence budget which will be divided for the Army,
Airforce, and the Navy. This then gives the Indonesian Navy an even smaller portion left for it
to spend which then posed a challenge for the Indonesian Navy in its effort to build its fleet
with the minimum budget.
