TNI: There Has Been No Directive From Jokowi That Plans To Send A General Dialogue With The Myanmar Junta

Illustration of clashes between protesters and Myanmar security forces. (Wikimedia Commons-VOA News)

JAKARTA - TNI General Chief of Staff (Kasum) Lt. Gen. Bambang Ismawan said President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has not yet given instructions about the generals who will be sent to Myanmar to help overcome the crisis.

"Until now there has been no (a directive from the President), specifically not yet," Bambang told reporters at the Jakarta Presidential Palace Complex, Friday, February 17, quoted by Antara.

Nevertheless, Bambang said the TNI would prepare the general figure.

So when the head of state asks, he continued, then there is already a TNI general who is ready to go to Myanmar.

"We just prepare it when one day the President may ask the TNI to prepare it, so we prepare it," he said.

Earlier, President Jokowi said Indonesia plans to send a high-ranking general to speak with Myanmar junta leaders.

With this step, Indonesia hopes to show the military now in power in Myanmar how Indonesia has succeeded in making the transition to democracy.

"This is a matter of approach. We have experience, in Indonesia the situation (ever) is the same. This experience can be studied, how Indonesia started its democracy," Jokowi said in an interview with Reuters in Jakarta, Wednesday, February 1, 2023.

Jokowi said he did not rule out the possibility of directly visiting Myanmar, but he said dialogue might be easier to build among officials from the same background.

Jokowi declined to say who the generals would be sent "as soon as possible" to Myanmar, but said the figure was involved in Indonesia's reforms.

Indonesia this year runs a period of chairmanship at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Indonesia wants to focus on five consensus points according to the results of the ASEAN Summit (KTT), April 24, 2021 in Jakarta, which can be implemented to overcome the crisis in Myanmar.