Singgih Wiryono, Faieq Hidayat, Jakarta – Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) senior researcher and chairperson of Centra Initiative, Al Araf, says that the phenomenon of the military (TNI) entering campuses occurred during the New Order era when the second president of the Republic of Indonesia Suharto was in power.
He expressed this after the phenomenon of the military entering campuses and student events has begun to be repeated recently.
"The military entering campus grounds occurred in the 1970-1980 era, at that time there was the incident of the army entering the ITB [Bandung Institute of Technology] campus in the 70-80s", Araf said when contacted by phone on Sunday April 20.
However, these bad incidents have happened again, and according to Araf this indicates an increasingly real decline in democracy, especially a decline in the management of Indonesia's defence.
"But now it's happening [again] so this is a bad precedent and it's a setback for us in the context of defence management where the military has re-entered campus areas", he said.
"Now, in human rights politics, things like that can be considered as a form of intimidation and coercion against students, while on the other hand, students are consolidating themselves", added Araf.
Therefore, he is urging the House of Representatives (DPR) to take action regarding the TNI's actions in entering campuses as an effort to coerce students.
"Thus, the DPR must pay a role as the people's representatives to correct the government's moves, especially the TNI entering campuses, which is clearly wrong and not in line with the TNI Law", he said.
As has been reported, the TNI has been recorded as having repeatedly entered campuses since March.
On March 24, a meeting took place between the Student Executive Council (BEM) and the 0701 Banyumas District Military Command (Kodim) in Central Java, which was motivated by protest actions against the DPR's ratification of revisions to the TNI Law on March 20.
On March 25, it was the turn of Papuan students to feel threatened by the circulation of a letter that had been sent by the 1707/Merauke Kodim to the Merauke Regional Secretariat requesting student data.
At the beginning of the letter, Kodim explained two reasons for requesting the data, namely the intelligence and security working program and considerations by the command and staff of Merauke/1707 Kodim.
Third, the announcement of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the TNI and the Udayana University in Bali.
Although the agreement was signed by Udayana University Chancellor I Ketut Sudarsana and the commander of the Udayana/IX Regional Military Command (Kodam), Major General Muhammad Zamroni on behalf of the Army Chief of Staff on March 5 in Denpasar, the information only to public attention on March 26.
The fourth event was the arrival of a TNI member at a discussion titled Fascism Threatens Campus: The Shadow of the Military for Academic Freedom at the Walisongo State Islamic University (UIN) in Semarang, Central Java, on April 14.
A report by Amnesty International Indonesia stated that the TNI members asked for detailed personal identities of the discussion committee members, starting from their names, place of residence and semester level.
The latest incident was the arrival of the TNI at the University of Indonesia (UI) campus on April 16. Viral news circulated on social media that soldiers had entered the campus during a BEM activity. The UI rectorate has stated that it did not invite the TNI to enter the campus area.
The presence of a number of TNI members in the UI Student Activity Centre (Pusgiwa) at the Depok campus was reportedly observed on Wednesday night at 11 pm. That night, the students were holding a national student consolidation at the Pusgiwa.
Those present were BEM representatives from various campuses and other student organisations from all across Indonesia. They discussed national issues.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "TNI Masuk Kampus, Pengamat: Preseden Buruk dan Mundur ke Belakang".]
