Novianti Setuningsih, Jakarta – Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) Deputy Director Hussein Ahmad says that the revisions of the Indonesian Military Law (UU TNI) on the removal of prohibitions on business activities is just a pretext for a handful of elite officers to be able to conduct business again as it was during the New Order era of former president Suharto.
"This is only a pretext friends, a pretext for what? A pretext for the wishes of a handful of the TNI elite to return to the New Order era, where the TNI can do business", Ahmad said during a press conference that was also broadcast on the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) YouTube channel on Thursday March 6.
Ahmad said that the TNI elite are taking advantage of this moment to revise the TNI Law so that they can return to doing business. "Taking advantage of the current president who's from the military, they're his friends, they want to revise the law to return to the New Order, so they can do business again," he said.
According to Ahmad, the revisions to the TNI Law seeking to remove the prohibition on the TNI doing business on the pretext of a sense of "pity" for low-level soldiers is the wrong perspective.
"The reason, he said, right, is having pity for the soldiers in the field, there are some who are working as GoJek ride hailing app drivers, there are some selling vegetables, so the prohibition on doing business must be removed, you know, this is the wrong perspective", he said.
He again mentioned that the elite actually have other intentions for wanting to revise the TNI Law. "So, don't use the narrative of pitying the low-level soldiers, then remove the prohibition of doing business, when in fact they actually want to run mining businesses and so on", Ahmad said.
Ahmad then emphasised that the welfare of TNI soldiers should be improved by the government rather than allowing them to run businesses. "So, if the problem is welfare, then fulfill their welfare needs so they can focus [on their jobs]. Not instead encouraging them to do business", he said.
Revisions to the TNI Law have begun to be discussed in the House of Representatives (DPR). The discussions include changes to the retirement age, soldiers filling civilian positions and the prohibition on doing business.
Diplomacy Strategic Forum Defence Advisor retired Major General Rodon Pedrason has requested that TNI soldiers, especially non-commissioned officers (bintara) and privates (tamtama) not be prohibited from conducting business.
Pedrason alluded to the issue of the pension money received by retired bintara and tamtama that are only 70 percent of their basic salary. Meanwhile, when they are on duty, they do not have other jobs.
"Soldiers, especially bintara or tamtama, don't prohibit them from doing business. What is their business? A former member of mine, a sergeant, as soon as he retired his business was meatball soup. Because he did not have work, during his service he didn't have a job. While his salary when he retired was 70 percent of the basic salary", Pedrason said.
"Even a general, as soon as they retire, a four-star [general], only gets 5.2 million rupiah [a month]. A four-star general only 5.2 million rupiah", he reiterated.
Pedrason then said that the business instincts of troops must be developed while they are still active as soldiers. Because, soldiers will definitely be a loss about what to eat if they only rely on pension money which is nominally relatively small.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Imparsial Sebut Revisi UU TNI Hanya Dalih Segelintir Elite untuk Bisa Berbisnis".]
