Civilian supremacy

Civilian supremacy

One would have thought that the question about civilian
supremacy over the military has already been settled, because
that is what Indonesia needs in order to build a truly democratic
society. The national consensus has been that the military, which
for many years enjoyed wide-ranging powers up until 1998, must
now be brought under the control of the elected civilian
government.

In our envisaged democratic system, the military is
accountable to the president, as the TNI supreme commander, who
in turn is accountable to the people.

The draft of legislation on the Indonesian Military (TNI),
prepared by the Ministry of Defense, has now unnecessarily
reopened that debate, again consuming our time and energy.

The draft, the content of which was leaked to the media last
week, shows a new attempt by the TNI to regain the political
power it enjoyed for more than 30 years during the Soeharto
regime. One contentious article in the draft bill states that the
TNI chief has the power to mobilize troops in times of emergency,
only needing to notify the president after 24 hours.

This article clearly violates the principle of civilian
supremacy, for it allows the TNI chief to subvert the power of
the president. Many fear that this article could be used to lend
legitimacy to a TNI coup against an elected government.

And it goes against the Constitution, which states that the
president has the power to declare a war, and therefore to order
the deployment of troops, and even then only with the approval of
the House of Representatives.

By inserting this particular clause in the draft legislation,
the TNI wants to have it both ways. It wants to be the one who
calls the shots as well as the one who pulls the trigger. Since
the TNI is not subject to democratic checks and balances, this
law gives it an omnipotent power that not even the president
enjoys.

Fortunately, this is only a draft bill, which is still in the
very early stage of the process. It has not even reached the
House of Representatives.

This draft was prepared by TNI officers at the Ministry of
Defense who were assisted by a number of civilian experts.
Looking at the content of the draft, it appears to have been
written in the spirit of promoting the interests of the TNI,
which are not necessarily in the best interests of the nation.

The article retaining the territorial function and structure
of the Army is further evidence of its antireform spirit.
Although the TNI will no longer have representatives sitting in
the legislatures after 2004, it still wields immense political
powers through its huge network of territorial commands.

It remains unclear where this draft is going to next.

The Ministry of Defense's team apparently has two options, to
let the government pick it up and present it to the House; or to
seek sponsors from friends in the House of Representatives, who
would present it to the House as their own initiative.

Given the strong antireform spirit of the draft, neither the
government nor the House members should take over the bill from
the Ministry of Defense's hands. Instead, the process should be
restarted. They should write their own draft, keeping in mind the
need to ensure civilian supremacy, and bring in TNI experts only
to advise them on military technical matters.

As time wasting as this debate about civilian supremacy may
seem, this episode has given us a rare glimpse of the mind-set of
many of the officers currently in charge of the TNI. Their
attitude toward reform and their strong contempt for the civilian
government are simply disturbing.

This is unfortunate because the TNI has been very progressive
in conducting internal reform these last five years, at times
even outpacing its civilian counterparts. Witness its decision
last year to end its representation in the national and regional
legislatures as of 2004, instead of 2009 as originally scheduled.

Having gone this far in the process of internal TNI reform, it
is sad to see that the progress it has made in the last five
years is now being squandered or rolled back. If the bill is
allowed to proceed beyond its present stillborn stage, it will be
a tragic and sad loss for both the TNI and the nation. It will
probably mark the end of reform.