Jakarta – The Civil Society Coalition for Security Sector Reform has criticised the move by the Indonesian Military Law Revisions Working Committee (Panja RUU) and the government to discuss revisions to Law Number 34/2004 on the Indonesian Military (UU TNI) at the Fairmont Hotel in Jakarta over the weekend.
According to the Coalition, the recklessly fast discussions at a 5-star luxury hotel over two days this weekend show that the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) are quite willing to hurt the ordinary people.
"In the midst of the revisions to the TNI Law being in the public spotlight, the government and the DPR have in fact chosen to discuss this bill in a secret manner at a luxury hotel over the weekend. We view this move as a form of a low commitment to transparency and public participation in the preparation of regulations that have a broad impact on national defence management", the Coalition said in a statement received on Saturday evening, March 15.
The Coalition is made up of a number of organisations and civil society groups such as Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial), the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, the Jakarta Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the All Indonesia Student Executive Council (BEM SI).
On Saturday March 15 representatives of the Coalition went to the Fairmont Hotel and held a protest action in front of the meeting room being used to discuss the TNI bill.
They consider the discussions show a poor commitment to transparency and public participation, as well as being contrary to the government's budget efficiency measures.
They referred to what is happening now as "omon-omon" (rhetoric, empty talk) when important sectors are actually facing funding cuts under the pretext of "budget efficiency".
"The Civil Society Coalition believes that this move not only shows the low commitment to transparency and public participation, but is also contrary to the budget efficiency policy that is being encouraged by the government", they said.
"The Indonesian government seems to have no shame and is just omon-omon only in the midst of budget efficiency efforts, as well as encouraging thrift in state spending, even reducing the allocation of funds for important sectors, including education and healthcare. But ironically, at the same time, the DPR and the government actually held discussions on the TNI bill at a luxury hotel, which of course consumed a large amount of the state budget, this is a form of waste and betrayal of the principles of justice and democracy", they added.
On that basis they strongly condemned the discussions on revisions to the TNI Law which are being carried out secretly at a luxury hotel due to its minimal transparency, accountability and public participation.
Moreover, they continued, the discussions are being carried out on a weekend and a short time before the DPR's recess period. The DPR is understood to be going into recess on March 21 before the Eid Al-Fitri 2025 holidays that are expected to fall at the end of this month.
"The government and the DPR must stop continually lying and hurting the Indonesian people's sense of justice", they asserted.
Risk of reviving TNI's dwi-fungsi
According to the Coalition, in its substance, the Draft TNI Law (RUU TNI) still contains problematic articles that threaten democracy and human rights enforcement in Indonesia. In addition to this, they have seen from the development of the discussions on the bill and the Problem Inventory List (DIM) that had been submitted by the government that it does in fact have the potential to restore the military's dwi-fungsi (dual function).
"In addition, the agenda of the revisions to the TNI Law will actually weaken military professionalism itself and have the potential to restore the TNI's dwi-fungsi where active military will be able to occupy civilian positions [in government]", they said in the statement.
"The expansion of the placement of active TNI in civilian positions, is not in accordance with the principle of the TNI's professionalism and risks giving rise to problems, such as civil exclusion from civilian positions, strengthening military dominance in the civil domain and policy making, and a dual loyalty", they added.
Therefore, they reject the discussion on revisions to the TNI Law at this time because it still contains problematic articles.
"We reject the draft RUU TNI as well as the DIM RUU TNI which was conveyed by the government to the DPR because it contains problematic articles and has the potential to restore the TNI's dwi-fungsi and militarism in Indonesia", they said.
Earlier, DPR Secretary General Indra Iskandar explained that holding discussions on the Draft TNI Law this weekend at the five-star Fairmont Hotel in Jakarta do not violate the DPR's rules and procedures.
He explained that in accordance with Article 254 of the regulation on the DPR's rules and procedures, meeting activities that are very urgent are allowed to be held outside the DPR building.
According to Iskandar, the outside meeting was also approved by the DPR leadership. He claimed to have personally looked for an appropriate location but the only place available was the Fairmont Hotel.
"Secretariat colleagues checked out several hotels, there were 5-6 hotels, but only one was available, yeah, the consideration was what was available with the format of the Panja RUU", he told reporters on Saturday.
Even though it was held at the Fairmont Hotel, Iskandar claimed there is a cooperative agreement between the hotel and the DPR so they obtained a special price offer that was affordable. "Considering the two hotels that have a government cooperation rate with us whose prices are affordable", he explained.
Iskandar added that with a high meeting intensity, a place to rest was needed for the RUU TNI working committee participants. "Because its character was marathon and simultaneous with a high level of urgency, it must be done in a place where there is a place to rest", he said.
Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin claimed earlier to have assigned the Secretary General of the Ministry of Defence to be involved in the discussions on the bill with the DPR. He said he wanted the Draft TNI Law to be completed before the DPR's recess period.
Sjamsoeddin said there were four main points in the revisions to the draft law that have been submitted by the government to the DPR. First, the strengthening and modernisation of defence equipment.
Second, clarifying the limits on the placement of TNI soldiers in non-military duties in civilian institutions. Third, the improvement of soldiers' welfare and finally, regulating the TNI retirement age limit.
Sjamsoeddin stressed however that that the revisions would only target three articles. Article 3 on the position of the TNI, Article 47 on the placement of the TNI in civilian institutions and Article 53 on the retirement age limit. (kid)
- A video of the protest action at the Fairmont Hotel can be viewed here: https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20250315190114-24-1209246/video-momen-koalisi-sipil-geruduk-rapat-tertutup-revisi-uu-tni
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Koalisi Sipil Kritik RUU TNI Dikebut di Hotel Mewah: Sakiti Rakyat".]
