HOUSE SPEAKER: IDEAL DEFENSE BUDGET TOTALS RP100 TRILLION

House Speaker Agung Laksono said here on Tuesday that ideally Indonesia's defense budget should total Rp100 trillion.

"According to a defense expert in the current conditions Indonesia needs to allocate more than Rp100 trillion for its defense budget," he said when responding to an army chopper crash in Cianjur, West Java, on Monday.

He said the amount was needed to procure new planes and strategic weapons, cover maintainance cost and improve the welfare of soldiers.

However, the fact is that Indonesia now can only afford to allocate Rp35 trillion for the defense budget.

"With a high budget neighbours will be afraid of us and will not dare conduct provocations again," he said.

Agung said their intelligence now might have known the country's weakness and therefore they dared undermining Indonesia.

He said the parliament was deeply concerned over the need to increase the defense budget.

The House Commission X had proposed adding Rp10 trillion to the current budget.

Agung considered flight safety an important factor no matter howmuch budget was available.

In view of that he emphasized the need to investigate the recent plane crash and report its result to the public and to avoid future recurrance.

"I was very concerned about the incident that again claimed our good soldiers. There must be a clear explanation about it from the authorities concerned," he said.

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