Military agrees to quit politics by the year 2004

Military agrees to quit politics by the year 2004

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The move to remove the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Police from
politics by 2004 won backing from legislators on Wednesday,
including those from the Indonesian Military/National Police
faction in the House of Representatives (DPR).

Military/police faction chairman Agus Widjojo said TNI and
police leaders increasingly realized that the military should
concentrate on its defense and security duties.

"In other countries the military is not designed as an
organization that deals with politics," Agus told The Jakarta
Post on Wednesday.

He said TNI and police officers wishing to contest seats in
the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) have to "completely
resign" from their active duties.

"If they are allowed to quit temporarily, they will be trapped
in a conflict of interests when serving as legislators because
their future career would still depend on the government," he
said.

The military and police, Agus said, would leave it to the
people to decide whether or not the military and police were
still needed in the legislature beyond 2004.

"TNI has no intention to retain its presence either in the
House or the People's Consultative Assembly," Agus said.

The government submitted the long-awaited election bill for
deliberation by the House last week. The bill stipulates that the
military and police will no longer be represented in both the DPR
and MPR by 2004.

Yet, it assured TNI and police officers of their political
rights as individuals by allowing them to contest seats in the
DPD, which will along the House make up the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR), the nation's highest legislative body.

According to MPR Decree No. 7, 2000, the TNI and police would
retain a presence in the House until 2004, and in the MPR until
2009.

Heri Achmadi, a legislator with the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), supported the bill banning
the presence of TNI and police both in the House and MPR.

The decree that retains the military for seven more years in
the MPR should be scrapped, he added.

Heri said TNI personnel must resign from the service if they
want to contest legislative seats. "Taking leave from their jobs
to serve as legislators is not enough," he added.

Ahmad Hafiz Zawawi from the Golkar faction shared similar
opinions, saying that active military, police officers and civil
servants should be barred from practical politics as they were
part of the state's apparatus.

"I agree that military and police officers running for DPD
posts in the 2004 elections must become civilians first," he
said, arguing that soldiers should not engage in politics.

"We should not repeat the mistakes made during Soeharto's
era," he said.

Hafiz's Golkar was former dictator Soeharto's political
vehicle to retain his 32 years of heavy-handed rule until he was
forced to resign in May 1998 amid anti-government protests and
mass riots.

On Tuesday, Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno said
servicemen had to resign if they wanted to run for DPD seats.

His surprising statement contradicted the election bill the
minister's own team had drafted, which allowed servicemen to be
reinstated if they were not elected as legislators.

Hafiz argued that the misuse of state facilities would be
unavoidable if civil servants were not obliged to resign to
contest elections.

Meanwhile, senior United Development Party lawmaker Zein
Badjeber said on Wednesday that the TNI and police should stay in
the MPR until 2009 as stated in MPR Decree No. 7/2000.

"To avoid negative excesses, I think the presence of the TNI
in legislative bodies except for the MPR should be avoided," he
said, claiming the MPR was not a political institution.

Asked about the election bill requiring all legislative
members not to be appointed, but to be elected, Badjeber simply
said, "The position of the MPR's decree is higher than the
proposed bill".