A tough choice for TNI?

A tough choice for TNI?

Imanuddin, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) closed its Annual
Session on Aug. 11 with an "outstanding and historic"
recommendation that the military and the police give up their
nonelected seats in the legislature in 2004.

According to this decision, military and police personnel, who
have over the past three decades enjoyed allocated seats in the
legislature without having to contest the general elections, will
be able to vote and will be required to leave the service should
they wish to enter politics.

The TNI's role on the political stage has a long history. On
Oct. 17, 1952, the Army intervened in national politics and
demanded that then president Sukarno dissolve the provisional
assembly (MPRS).

On July 5, 1959, then Army chief Gen. Abdul Harris Nasution
forced president Sukarno to issue a decree reinstating the 1945
Constitution.

That decree nullified all of the constitutional amendments
effected by a constituent assembly. In fact, the assembly was the
result of the country's first democratic election in 1955.

General Nasution then formulated the TNI's political role,
popularly known as the TNI's dual function (dwifungsi). This dual
function was maintained and became even more firmly entrenched
during the New Order administration of president Soeharto.

There were several important decisions made by the Assembly
during the session, yet the one putting an end to the military
and the police's involvement in day-to-day politics was by far
its most important one.

But the Assembly's courageous decision was not made overnight,
as the legislators had been engaged in a tug-of-war before
reaching a "compromise" on a face-saving exit for the military
and the police from politics.

Pressure from Cilangkap, the Indonesian Military (TNI)'s
headquarters in East Jakarta, began in June when then TNI chief
Adm. Widodo A.S. issued a statement on June 17, or one day before
he handed over his command to Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, saying
TNI wanted to remain in the legislature and have its voting
rights delayed until 2009.

The statement was indeed controversial, made as it was by an
officer about to vacate his post and during deliberation of the
bill on general elections -- submitted by the government in May
to the House of Representatives (DPR), and proposing restoring
the right of members of the TNI, along with the National Police,
to vote in the 2004 elections.

Widodo argued that the proposed bill would force the
TNI/Police to leave the legislature in 2004, which contradicted
an MPR decree allowing it to stay in the country's highest
legislative body until 2009.

Widodo was referring to Assembly Decree No. VII/2000, which
granted seats in the Assembly to the TNI/National Police until
2009, while also stipulating that members of the military and
police would have no voting rights and no right to contest
elections until that date. The decree also regulates that both
forces should remain neutral and stay out of politics.

The bill on general elections itself is controversial, as it
stipulates that members of the TNI and the National Police can be
elected to the Regional Representative Council (DPD), provided
they obtain the permission of their superiors.

The DPD is a new institution, which was proposed by the
elections bill and whose existence was approved by the recently
completed MPR session. According to the amended Constitution, the
Assembly will consist of House members and DPD members, all of
whom will be elected in a general election.

More pressure to keep the military in the legislature came
from Widodo's successor, Gen. Endriartono, who proposed that the
nation return to the original 1945 Constitution if deliberations
on the latest round of amendments became deadlocked.

Endriartono's statement was echoed by Assembly Deputy Speaker
Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo of the TNI/Police faction on the sixth day
of the Annual Session.

Agus' statement contradicted an earlier one by the chairman of
the TNI/Police faction in the House, Maj. Gen. Slamet Supriyadi,
who said on Aug. 5 that the military and police were prepared to
abandon politics.

"We have wholeheartedly decided to leave the Assembly. We ask
for your support and blessing in doing so," Slamet said.

Yet the battle over whether to retain or cancel the nonelected
seats of the TNI/Police in the legislature was not fought only in
the Assembly building.

A senior legislator and military officer said debates and
negotiations outside the legislative building helped the MPR
reach the decision to recommend that the military and the police
give up their allocated seats.

Because only a few thousand protesters showed up during the
session, intensive meetings and negotiations between Cilangkap
and a number of social and religious organizations were the
important and triggering factor leading to the Assembly's
decision on the TNI.

With the TNI leaving the MPR, future representative bodies
will me made up entirely of elected members -- a decision that in
the end reflected a good though stormy "collaboration" between
the outgoing MPR, a legacy of the past, and the public,
represented by various social and mass organizations.