TNI's democratic guerrilla war

TNI's democratic guerrilla war

The Indonesian military (TNI) is indeed experienced in
guerrilla warfare. Even in drafting the bill on political
parties, its guerrilla maneuver could manage to include the right
for members of the TNI and police to vote and be elected.

Power is something desirable and tends to be intoxicating, in
fact. Under the Soeharto regime, the TNI and police enjoyed this
power through its figures, who occupied decisive positions in
virtually all ranks of the government.

Now under the excuse of human rights, there arose stipulations
that they, too, reserve the human rights to be respected, in
terms of the right to vote and particularly to be elected.

Anyway, this has aroused the suspicion that the TNI/police
already anticipated the spread of power over various regions. And
with an average higher quality of human resources than that of
most civilians, one can expect that they will have greater chance
of being elected.

The emergence of this voting right provision actually reflects
the unwillingness of the TNI/police to give up the role in the
national political process, and at the same time the weak point
of civilians in 'resisting' the military guerrillas.

The statement of speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly
Amien Rais on the necessity to introduce a very strict rule, is
right. This is to prevent the possible recurrence of practices of
power abuse even through democratic means. Sadly, the large
number of civilians in institutions of people's representatives
are not yet capable of building political stability, and this
inevitably has tempted the military to preserve its role.

-- Republika, Jakarta