Lawmakers set to endorse controversial TNI bill

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.