Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) and the government have continued discussions on revisions to Law Number 34/2004 on the Indonesian Military (UU TNI) in the midst of public criticism.
A number of changes to the articles in the law have been highlighted that are considered to be reviving the TNI's dwi-fungsi (dual function) as it was in the New Order era (Orba) of former president Suharto.
According to the DPR and the government, there are only three articles in the Draft Law on the TNI (RUU TNI) that are being changed, namely Article 3, Article 53 and Article 47. These articles are related to the TNI"s position under the Ministry of Defence, a new range of civilian positions that active TNI soldiers can hold and the retirement age for soldiers.
The DPR and the government have been united in denying that the RUU TNI will return the TNI's dwi-fungsi. But the Civil Society Coalition doubts this claim. Moreover the discussions are seen as rushed and not transparent.
The Coalition's assessment that it will revive the TNI"s dwi-fungsi are not without reason. Because under the draft law, there are an additional five ministries and government institutions that can now be filled by active soldiers.
In addition to this, on Friday and Saturday, March14-15, the RUU TNI working committee (Panja) and government representative held closed discussions on the law at the Fairmont Hotel in Jakarta.
The interesting thing is that despite sparking widespread controversy, so far not a single political party faction in parliament has rejected or even criticised the RUU TNI.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Democrat Party, who it had been hoped would speak out critically, have not said much. In fact, the chairperson of the RUU TNI working committee is Utut Adianto who is a PDI-P politician.
It was hoped that the PDI-P would reject the revisions because it is seen as the opposition after losing the 2024 presidential election.
The PDI-P is also considered to be a party that supports civilian supremacy and once played a role in removing ABRI's (the name of the TNI under the New Order) dwi-fungsi or dual function. In parliament however, not one critical voice was raised by the party.
The Democrats meanwhile, were also expected to oppose the revisions because up until now the chairperson of the party's supreme council, former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), has always declared his opposition to active soldiers entering the government. SBY has consistently said that the active soldiers have to resign from the TNI if they want to occupy civilian positions.
Zero opposition
Andalas University political observer Asrinaldi suspects that the absence of opposition in the discussions on the RUU TNI were because the political parties did not dare to accept the consequences if they went against the government.
"Our political parties, right, can't survive being outside the government, so they just go along with it, later if in the end they leave, they'll be sorry", Asrinaldi told CNN Indonesia on Tuesday March 18.
He believes that the Democratic position of supporting the RUU TNI is because SBY's views cannot be fully pursued his son, Democrat Party chairperson Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY).
Moreover, he said, the Democrats have also been part of the coalition that supported President Prabowo Subianto since the 2024 presidential election.
"SBY is different from AHY, even though he's the head of the supreme council, but still if the Democrats are part of the government, of course he would not dare to be vocal because this is the agenda of the government that's in power", said Asrinaldi.
"Unless the Democrats have the courage to declare a position and if they leave the coalition only then can we hope for such a position", he continued.
Similarly, Trias Politika Director Agung Baskoro says that it's natural that the PDI-P did not oppose the discussions on the RUU TNI.
Baskoro is of the view that the PDI-P deliberately separates the position of the PDI-P's Central Leadership Board (DPP) which echoes resistance and the position of the PDI-P faction in parliament which provides support as a strategic partner.
"This is what will continue to be orchestrated by the PDP-P to maintain its bargaining position, including in the context of the discussions on revisions of the TNI Law, yeah, which ran smoothly without any obstacles", Baskoro said.
Furthermore, Baskoro believes that SBY's position that seemed to be at odds with the Democratic faction in parliament on the RUU TNI is also not without reason. He believes that the Democrats did not want to be rash by directly expressing opposition to the discussions on the RUU TNI.
"So I see the Democrats looking at this issue quite carefully so that it does not make their relationships with the government or the Indonesian Forward Coalition Plus of which they are members becoming less solid", he said.
Option of two rounds of resistance
Without any opposition in parliament, any hope of overseeing the discussions on the RUU TNI Bill critically now relies on civil society.
Baskoro and Asrinaldi both believe that the Civil Society Coalition still has two opportunities to oversee and even reject the RUU TNI. Asrinaldi believes that opposition to the RUU TNI being enacted can be done by holding demonstrations.
He considers that these efforts could be an effective way to reject the RUU TNI, especially if the demonstration are joined by thousands of people.
Asrinaldi said this method succeeded when civil society held demonstrations in August last year so that the DPR ended up complying with the Constitutional Court's (MK) ruling on the election of regional heads (Pilkada).
"If there's a lot of mass protests like the law on regional elections the RUU Pilkada Law, yeah, in the end they were stopped and this was also very dependent on the executive order, in this case President Prabowo, because he had an agenda related to this", he explained.
Aside from this, Baskoro believes that there are other efforts that could be carried out if the demonstrations are not heard by the DPR. This could be pursued by submitting a judicial review with the Constitutional Court.
"If it is stuck, we'll take the revision to the Constitutional Court for a judicial review, yeah, and that's more productive I think, so that the rules that we don't want can return everything to the way it was", he said. (mab/tsa)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Krisis Partai Oposisi di RUU TNI dan Perlawanan Masyarakat Sipil".]
