Jakarta – The ratification of the Draft Law on the Indonesian Military (RUU TNI) on March 20 was followed by a wave of demonstrations around the country. Actions by civil society groups continued on March 23-24 with several rallies continuing into evening which were marred by repressive actions by the police.
CNN Indonesia has compiled a report on several demonstrations that became heated on Sunday and Monday.
Malang
Chaos erupted during a demonstration that took place in Malang, East Java, on Sunday March 23. The action was centred at the Malang City Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) building.
Scores of participants were reported to have fallen victim to violence by the police. Some of those who were injured are being treated in hospital and four people are still declared missing.
Malang Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) post coordinator Daniel Siagian noted that there were at least a dozen protesters who suffered injuries, with one being seriously hurt.
"Meanwhile there were scores of injured victims that we inventoried, and there was one victim who was seriously injured with the initials NH who is in hospital, their jaw and teeth were cracked due to a blunt instrument", Siagian said on Monday March 24.
Aside from injuries, there were also six people who have been declared to have lost contact. Two of them have been found and are being questioned at the Malang Municipal Police Headquarters (Mapolresta), while the other four are still unable to be contacted.
The head of Malang Municipal Police Criminal Investigation Unit Police Commissioner Muhammad Saleh admitted that they arrested six people at the action.
He said the arrests were made because the six were suspected of vandalising facilities and injuring police officers and that they were taken to Malang Municipal Police Headquarters for questioning.
Of the six, one is a university student, two are underage high-school students and the other was identified as a former student who has already graduated.
"There were six people, because clearly there were victims and objects that were damaged during the incident that occurred and also friends, officers who were also victims, so they are still being secured, and we are conducting an examination", Saleh told the media on Monday.
Under the Criminal Procedural Code (KUHAP) there are no provisions on "security" or "secured" as cited.
Surabaya
Demonstrations in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya on Monday were centred in front of the Grahadi State Building. The protesters, who called themselves the Anti-Militarism Front (FAM) closed off a section of Jalan Governor Suryo in front of the East Java governor's official residence.
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Secretary General Andy Irfan said that the TNI Law (UU TNI) that was enacted by the House of Representatives (DPR) on March 20 represented the revival of the military's dwi-fungsi or dual function.
"The revisions to the UU TNI in term of substance are a form of the realisation of military's dwi-fungsi because it revives the opportunity for the TNI to enter and control civilian governments", Irfan said.
Meanwhile, Surabaya LBH advocate Jauhar Kurniawan highlighted the issue of retirement age and the authority to monitor cyber space under the revised TNI Law.
Senior officers initially retired at the age of 58, this has been revised to 62 years. The change is considered to have the potential to disrupt the TNI personnel system that already has an excess of active officers.
"Meaning, structural positions within the TNI are not proportional to the number of active personnel that exist. In practice, there many officers with the colonel to general rank who do not have structural positions (non-job), so that those who are non-jobs have the potential to be placed in civilian positions that should not be under the authority of active TNI members", he said.
During the demonstration, the protesters took up eight demands. These included, among others, rejecting the revisions to the TNI Law, rejecting the expansion of tasks for the TNI in the civilian realm, rejecting the additional authority of the TNI in the realm of military operations other than war, especially in the cyber realm, and calling for the TNI's territorial command structure (Koter) to be dismantled.
At least 40 people were arrested by police during the demonstration. Two journalists, namely Rama Indra (Beritajatim) and Wildan Pratama (Suara Surabaya) were reported to have been victims of violence by the police.
Palangkaraya
A number of students who are members of the Civil Society Movement (GEMAS) held a demonstration on Monday afternoon to reject the TNI Law that has just been passed by the DPR. The action was centred on the Central Kalimantan DPRD in Palangkaraya.
During the action, the protesters lowered the national red-and-white flag in the DPRD grounds to half-mast.
Early on in the action there was a scuffle with police and demonstrators pushing and shoving each other. Quoting from Detik Kalimantan, the demonstrators began pushed on the left side of the DPRD entrance gate. But because they were unable to break through, they switched to the rights side of the gate.
Eventually the masses managed to break through the gate and entered the grounds of the DPRD building. They then lowered the red-and-white flag to half-mast.
Kupang
Meanwhile on Monday afternoon a demonstration by hundreds of students opposing the TNI Law in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), was marred by chaos between a number of rogue state civil servants (ASN) from the NTT DPRD and the students.
The students, who succeeded in entering the grounds of the NTT DPRD and approaching the parliament building, were attacked and assaulted by people suspected of being ASN.
Initially the hundreds of students were involved in a scuffle with the police who blocked them at the entrance gate to the DPRD building. Eventually the demonstrators succeeded in forcing their way in after breaking through a police line made up of scores of officers.
Following this, the students went straight to the council building lobby on the second floor to meet with DPRD Speaker Emilia Nomleni. Upon reaching the lobby however, the students encountered resistance from a number of ASN who were on duty at the Council Secretariat (Setwan).
One of the ASN even picked up an object from the floor then chased the action coordinator who was trying to bring the student's anger under control. The action coordinator was even hit by the ASN.
Riau Islands
Hundreds of students from the group Tanjungpinang-Bintan Cipayung Plus held a protest action at the Riau Islands (Kepri) DPRD building on Monday. DPRD members met with the demonstrators in front of the gates to the parliament building.
The demonstrators were also demanding that the revisions to the TNI Law that were enacted during a DPR plenary meeting last week be cancelled.
During the action, the protesters brought a replica shrouded ghost corpse and a banner reading "The Browns have Pakde and the Stripes have Gemoy", referring to the national police's information app PAKDE PRAST and the cuddly grandfather image crafted by President Prabowo Subianto during the 2024 presidential election campaign.
"We hope that the Kepri Provincial DPRD will support the public in rejecting the revisions to the draft law that has been passed", said field coordinator Gabran Rinaldi Hutahuruk.
Bandung
In West Java (Jabar), protest actions rejecting the TNI Law were held in the cities of Bandung and Sukabumi.
In Bandung, a group of students from the Bandung Muhammadiyah University of and Nusantara Islamic University were involved in the demonstration.
Quoting from Detik Jabar, the student protesters gave speeches voicing their desire for the military to be returned to the barracks. They also set fire to tyres as a form of protest against the ratification of the TNI Law.
During the action, the students demanded that the TNI Law be revoked because it is feared that it could reactivate the military's dual function. "The ratification seemed rushed and made us angry", said John, one of the students.
Sukabumi
Meanwhile in Sukabumi, a demonstration took place in front of the Sukabumi City DPRD building. Although the protest was initially peaceful, chaos broke out when some of the demonstrators threw paint at the police. The situation heated up until the police fired water cannon to disperse the crowd.
During the action, hundreds of students took to the streets to voice their demands against government policies that they consider not to side with the ordinary people. The demonstration was carried out as a form of protest against various policies related to the TNI, democracy and government transparency.
"Looking at the current situation, when the law is being tossed around by the rulers, then there is only one word: resist!", shouted a speaker in the middle of the action. (ryn/tsa)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Gelombang Aksi Protes UU TNI di Daerah: Surabaya hingga Kupang".]
