ABSTRACT
The Indonesian National Military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia – TNI)1 has played and continues to play a role in the politics of the Republic of Indonesia that begs the distinction between a civil and a military state. The balance between civil and military authority has, at times, varied. But the civil state continues to be so fundamentally weak, and the military relatively so strong, that the continued existence of the state without the active intervention of the military is at least improbable and perhaps impossible.
