SBY TO RAISE DEFENSE BUDGET IN STAGES

Jakarta, June 19 (ANTARA) - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, one of three presidential aspirants said in a debate here if he wins in the July 8, 2009 presidential polls he would raise the defense budget in stages.

"Indeed the defense budget is big and what we have now is still much lower. We have calculated that the defense budget needs at least Rp120 trillion or 12 percent of our national budget of Rp1,000 trillion," Yudhoyono said in a presidential candidates debate held by the General Elections Comission (KPU) on Thursday night.

The first presidential hopefuls debate before the upcoming presidential polls moderated by Prof Anis Baswedan, rector of Paramadina university was also participated in by the other aspirants, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Jusuf Kalla.

Yudhohyono said "In the future, in line with the country's economic growth and the increase of the state's revenue, the defense budget will be raised from Rp35 trillion to Rp120 trilion in stages. Other portions of the state budget are for the people's welfare and the economy. While the (current) defense budget is directed for the operational task, maintenance of the main military's hardware defense system (alutsista), personnel education and patrol," he said.

According to Yudhoyono in line with efforts to spur economic growth and increase the government budget in five years to come, the defense budget will continously increase.

Megawati, leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) pairs with Prabowo Subianto of Gerindra party, while Jusuf Kalla, leader of Golkar Party pairs with Wiranto, chairman of Hanura party.

The debate was designed in some segments which took 90 minutes, and the first segment was the exposure of vision and mission of each candidate for 7-10 minutes.

The next session of the segment was for questions and answers, where each candidate has two minutes to answer. In the third session moderator asked one of the candidates and then moderator asked another candidate's views about the previous candidate's answer to the question presented by the moderator.
After that the previous candidate was given time to give the closing answers.

The last session was the statements delivered by each candidate for 1.5 minutes.

The debate was also attended by the KPU chairman Hafiz Ansyari, Boediono, running mate of Yudhoyono and successful teams the three aspirants.