Fallen Air Force

June 12, 2009: A 30-year-old Puma H-3306 helicopter crashed in at the Air Force’s Atang Sendjaja air base in Bogor, killing four and injuring three.
June 8, 2009: Another helicopter crash in West Java killed three
May 20, 2009: C-130 Hercules plane accident in East Java killed more than 100 soldiers and civilians, including villagers on the ground.
… (You can continue the story)

The purpose of this article is not to investigate the cause of these aircraft accidents. But as international relation and defense scholar, what we need to answer is whether global politics contributed to our poorly armed Indonesian military.

Some parties blame the government who allocate fewer budgets for our underfunded army. The approved Rp 36.39 trillion of 2008 army budgets is a far cry of the minimum Rp 100 trillion the Defense Ministry had demanded to modernize Indonesia’s armory. “Ideally, the maintenance cost should be 20 to 25 percent of the overall military budget, but at present it is less than 10 percent,” Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono told to The Jakarta Post (May 22, 2009).

Yes, we agree that budget is a big problem for our army. But there is other influential factor that we need to highlight. Indonesia’s Air Force has been long handicapped by a US ban on weapons sales. Pak Bantarto Bandoro once has asked the availability of spare parts and pilot training which only we can obtain in US. Until to date, Indonesian army is still heavily dependent on US. The tragedy could possibly have been prevented if there were a US aid to upgrade obsolete components.

So, what we can see here that budget is not the only factor of the tragedy. There are some other factors, technical and political that cause this crash. I believe, as the defense specialist, you can add up more factors here. But I can assure that all of us didn’t want any aircraft accidents in the future anymore. On my highest appreciation, we send condolences to victim of the series of Indonesian aircraft accidents.

My Whereabouts

Dear my beloved bloggerHI,

I found an interesting article titled “Senja Kala Blogging di Indonesia”, written by Tutu Nugraha Dewanto, an online PR consultant regarding decreased blogging activities in Indonesia. He stated that Indonesian netter now choose to have fun with his Facebook/Twitter account rather than to update their blogs. As the impact of this new trend, he added that many blogs now was being ignored and unupdated. It reminds me to portalHI, indeed.

Through YM and Facebook, I got tones of protest why portalHI hadn’t new article for a long time. Actually I’m trying to update portalHI but it’s really difficult to manage my time effectively and efficiently. The transition from collegiate life to working professional is my big problem. Currently I’m working in a independent global PR firm IndoPacific Edelman as account executive in Public Affairs division. But now I have updated portalHI and continue this further.

Please rest assures that I’m still belongs to bloggerHI. I do love writing, discussing IR issues with you and blogwalking. Apology for not updating this blog for a long time. Congratulation for Bung Asrudin with your new book. Bung, I’m still waiting for your free book (Smile). In conclusion, I believe that the increasing popularity of Facebook and other social network will not make our bloggerHI die down. It’s our chance to prove that blogging for IR scholar is an habit, an established practice.

Looking forward to your reply.

Best,

Verdinand