THE MERE DREAM OF MODERN AND STRONG NAVAL FORCES: A REFLECTION ON INDONESIA’S NAVAL MODERNIZATION DURING PRESIDENT JOKOWI’S FIRST TERM OF ADMINISTRATION 2015-2019

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.