First NWG meeting in Indonesia

The first national working group (NWG) meeting was held in Indonesia on 18 September in Jakarta.

During the meeting, the background of security sector governance in Indonesia was discussed at length. The role of the May riots in 1998 was discussed, and the ensuing drive for security sector reform in Indonesia, including the separation of police and military in 1999 and following efforts to decrease the political influence of security sector actors. It discussed new laws for the police and national defence (both in 2002) and the armed forces (in 2004), and their effects.

This set the scene for a discussion of Indonesia's main current security challenges, most notably the lasting influence of security actors in national politics. This includes the broad economic, social, and political influence of the Indonesian military, and their sometimes unclear relationship with civilian leadership. The discussion led to the identification of several main challenges, being military and police influence in politics, politicised law enforcement, unfinished military justice reform, slow development of SSR legislation, and lack of funding for CSOs working on SSR. This correlates with the NWG's conclusions on an agenda for the way forward, focussing on improving oversight, military reform and civilian control, police reform and demilitarisation, intelligence reform, and justice reform.