JAKARTA: The Indonesian Military (TNI) needs a bigger budget to enhance its defence capabilities and thwart external threats, said Deputy chairman of the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission I Utut Adianto.
According to reports in Antara news, he was speaking during a talk show held by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) in conjunction with the TNI 77th anniversary.
He said there was lack of political support to obtain a bigger defence budget.
The talk show highlighted the history, pioneering and future design of TNI.
"Politics is a matter of support. The support for TNI's budget has not shown what was talked about in the era of the fifth Indonesian president, Megawati Soekarnoputri," the lawmaker said.
"We want to see TNI getting stronger," he said and noted the defence budget which reaches 134 trillion rupiah (RM40 billion) is far from enough as ideally, it should be double or even triple the amount.
Meanwhile, in the same event, former Air Force Chief of Staff Marshal (ret) Agus Supriatna highlighted several challenges to TNI in the future.
"There are three things that I need to talk about to face the present and future challenges. We must have national strategy and policy, prepare human resources and procure primary weapon system," he said.
"The defence strategy policy must focus on the present challenge and threat of war, namely asymmetric war, cyber war and proxy war," he said.