Prabowo Pledges TNI Expansion to Combat Illegal Logging

President Prabowo Subianto has highlighted the disparity between the number of TNI (Indonesian National Armed Forces) battalions and the total number of regencies in Indonesia. He stated that if one battalion were to be stationed in each regency, over 360 regencies would still lack a TNI presence. Prabowo linked this limited security apparatus in certain regions to the issue of monitoring Indonesia's natural wealth. "There lies our wealth. Because of that, for decades, illegal logging, illegal mining, and wild plantations have occurred," Prabowo said in the "President Prabowo Answers" program, citing a press release from Bakom RI on Thursday (17/9). He emphasized that strengthening the TNI is crucial to ensure national defense and security reach all corners of the Indonesian archipelago. The vastness of the country and its large population necessitate a more evenly distributed defense presence to safeguard national sovereignty. "Our country is very large. We have 514 regencies, and these regencies are large. Not small regencies, but large ones," he stated. Furthermore, Prabowo noted that Indonesia's defense budget is among the smallest in ASEAN, remaining below 2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He mentioned that defense spending has hovered around 0.9% of GDP for decades, contrasting it with Singapore's allocation of over 3% of its GDP for defense. "So, in my opinion, our system, a uniform defense and security system, requires the presence of sufficiently strong defense elements," he concluded.