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Indonesian military commander General Moeldoko reaffirmed the military's non-siding stance in the upcoming elections, saying that such a stance is essential to assure peace and fairness during conduction of the democracy process in the country.
"This is also to maintain the military's solidity as the ultimate tool to defense the nation," Moeldoko said on the sidelines of MoU signing on cooperation with the Indonesian General Elections Commission (KPU) regarding the security assurance during the conduction of parliamentary and residential elections slated for April 9 and July 9 this year.
"Implementation of the military's duty was in accordance with mandates stipulated in the constitution. It is a moral duty to secure the sustainability of democracy, reform movement objectives, " the military commander added.
Moeldoko pointed out that military's involvement in the elections was limited in helping the KPU to secure distribution of elections logistics to remote areas with minimum access due to hard geographical condition.
In term of security assurance, Moeldoko said that the military would be in standby position to help police to secure situation should election-related unrest erupts.
Meanwhile, retirees of Indonesian senior military officers pledged their supports to president hopeful from Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party Prabowo Subianto on Thursday last week.
Prabowo was former commander of the army's elite forces Kopassus who had turned to a successful businessman after his retirement. During his service to command the Kopassus, Prabowo was accused of kidnapping democracy activists in 1998 occurred shortly before the student uprising that eventually topple down Soeharto, the second Indonesian president who has been holding the presidency in 32 years.
