Lawmakers set to endorse controversial TNI bill

Kurniawan Hari and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives has finished deliberating the controversial military bill and plans to bring the draft to a House plenary meeting for endorsement on Thursday.

Legislator Imam Addaruqutni of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said on Tuesday the House and the government reached agreement on several contentious issues in the bill during closed-door meetings at the House and a plush hotel in Central Jakarta.

Imam did not provide details of the meeting at the hotel, saying only that it took place on the eve of a session of the People's Consultative Assembly and lasted until 3 a.m. The four- day Assembly session started last Thursday morning.

While the House has insisted that it will endorse the bill before the end of its current session, deliberations on the draft appeared headed for a deadlock due to seemingly unreconcilable positions held by the House and the government over certain issues.

The government, for example, had proposed that active military officers be allowed to occupy civilian posts in the bureaucracy, but the House had vehemently rejected this idea. In the final draft, both the House and the government agreed that active military officers may fill civilian posts that require a military capability.

The government had also sought to reintroduce the military's so-called territorial role, which during former president Soeharto's 33 years of ironfisted rule was abused to coerce the people into supporting the government.

In the face of strong public opposition, the government withdrew the proposal. Lawmakers, however, agreed to modify the military's "territorial role" into something aimed at boosting national defense capability.

Ibrahim Ambong, chairman of House Commission I in charge of security affairs, denied suggestions on Tuesday that money changed hands during the bill's deliberation.

"Let us look at the substance of the bill. Do not be negative and think that we received something from the deliberations," Ambong said.

Happy Bone Zulkarnain of Golkar appreciated the willingness of the government, represented during the deliberations by the defense ministry and the TNI, to compromise on some crucial issues, including explicit stipulations banning military personnel from joining political parties, taking part in political activities and engaging in business activities.

Article 74 of the bill, for example, stipulates that the government must take over the business assets of the TNI within five years. The procedures for this will be outlined in a later presidential decree.

The House began deliberating the bill on Aug. 23 during a hearing with interim coordinating minister for political and security affairs Hari Sabarno, TNI commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto and the defense ministry's secretary-general, Rear Marshal Suprihadi.

After several open hearings, lawmakers continued the deliberations behind closed doors.

Military observers and prodemocracy activists had urged that deliberation of the bill be handed over to the new House members elected in the April 5 legislative election, who will be sworn in on Oct. 1.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri and House Speaker Akbar Tandjung also urged lawmakers not to rush the deliberations.