Govt told to get tougher with paramilitary groups

Muhammad Nafik and Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government needs a law enabling it to take action against military-style groups that have the potential to harm democracy and spark conflict, analysts and activists say.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post separately on Friday, they agreed that every organization should be banned from appearing in military uniform.

"The presence of quasimilitary or police organizations is unacceptable because it creates a condition of fear," Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra said.

"But the government needs a law to act against this. So far we don't have any regulations banning military-style groups," he added.

Azyumardi said the law should disallow organizations to hold military training, wear military-like outfits, boots and other attributes. "All these military symbols can spark fear and trigger conflict," he added.

Former defense minister Juwono Sudarsono has repeatedly urged youth groups to shed their military uniforms.

On Thursday, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto reiterated his call for all extremist and militia groups, including those affiliated to political parties and religious organizations, to disband.

Speaking a day after the militant Islam Defenders Front (FPI) decided to indefinitely freeze its paramilitary wing, he argued that security was a matter that must be entrusted to the government, not to civilian paramilitary groups.

Azyumardi branded Endriartono's passionate call as "very positive" in an effort to help nurture the nation's fledging democracy, and urged the National Police to follow it up.

"Because there is no law justifying the authorities to take action against paramilitary gangs, the police should now use a persuasive approach to ask their leaders to dissolve their groups," he said. "We cannot dissolve them directly," he stressed.

Apart from FPI, Indonesia has seen other radical groups, such as the Laskar Jihad and Laskar Jundullah, whose activities often spark public concern.

Many people are also offended by the coarse actions of similar paramilitary groups affiliated to political parties and religious organizations, such as a task force of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and Banser of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) who often take the law into their own hands.

Azyumardi admitted that many existing paramilitary groups tended to intimidate people or generate fear.

However, staunch human rights campaigner Hendardi said that principally the government had no right to dissolve any organization whatever ideology it followed.

"What it can do is to enforce the law against members found committing crimes, and prohibit their activities, like military training, which have the potential to spark conflict," he said.

"Any organization has the right to exist, but it cannot take over the functions of security authorities. This is what we should pay attention to," Hendardi added.

Meanwhile, PDI Perjuangan secretary-general Pramono Anung opposed calls for the disbandment of the party's task force, called Satgas PDI Perjuangan, which he said was different from religious-oriented paramilitary groups.

"Our Satgas PDI Perjuangan is not paramilitary. Nor has it ever conducted exercises resembling military training. The task force is an internal tool used by our party," he said.

"This is a place where young people can learn how to mingle in a political organization. We give them knowledge on working within an organization," Satgas PDI Perjuangan commander Richard Tulis said.

What looked like military training was merely an "exercise of discipline", he added.

Syukur Sabang, secretary-general of Ansor -- the parent organization of Banser, said there was no need to dissolve the NU-affiliated group, but supported calls for it to shed its militaristic fashion.

He said Banser would not take on the function of security authorities despite the fact its members occupied the Jawa Pos newspaper's office in Surabaya, East Java, last May.

"The Java Pos case was a blunder that Banser will not repeat," Syukur added.