Starting Points: People's Consultative Assembly

May 18, 2010

Tempo - When Generals Redeploy

The TNI gave up its dual function. The TNI/Police Faction left earlier than the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) deadline.

... The words dual function make no more sense. Once again we’re back to defense/security duties. The TNI/Police are returning to professions...

THE verses marked the end of assignments of generals in Senayan. The poem entitled Pamit (Goodbye) was read out by Maj. Gen. Kohirin Suganda Saputra in the House of Representatives (DPR)/MPR building. Kohirin acted as spokesman for the TNI/Police faction in the September 24, 2004 session. All members of the MPR promptly rose from their seats and warmly applauded.

In the final session of MPR members for the 1999-2004 term, the TNI/Police faction was present in Senayan for the last time. The divorce between the military/police and Senayan was based on the Decree of the MPR No. VII/2000 on the role of the TNI and Police. The decree was endorsed on August 18, 2000. In the same year, the MPR also applied the separation between the military and police.

Pursuant to the MPR decree, TNI and police members no longer have the right to vote and be elected as of the 2004 General Elections. In compensation, the TNI/Police faction was still allowed to remain until 2009 so it could take part in policy making through the MPR. And this faction seemed to leave sooner than the deadline set in the decree. The TNI/Police said goodbye a week after the second phase of the 2004 presidential election.

In his speech, Kohirin said the decision meant the military’s determination to abandon practical politics. Soldiers would specialize themselves in their profession as apparatus of the state and executor of state defense and security. “It’s not due to pressure from any party,” assured Kohirin.

The faction of TNI and Police appeared on June 25, 1960 according to Presidential Decree No.156/1960 on the membership of the Mutual Assistance House of Representatives and the package of political legislation. The military and police always got “free” MPR/DPR seats until 2004.

When the New Order was born, the DPR provided 100 seats for the Indonesian Armed Forces faction. The number of seats in the DPR was reduced to 75 based on the decree of the 1993 MPR General Assembly. In the debate over the bill on structures and positions of the MPR, the DPR, and the Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) in 1999, the soldiers’ free seats were again questioned by some factions.

The government in the draft debate proposed 55 seats. The TNI/Police faction in the same discussion offered 40 seats. The United Development Party faction recommended 2 percent soldiers in Senayan or 10 of the total of DPR members. The Development Functionaries faction allotted 25 seats for soldiers.

The book SBY Sang Demokrat (SBY the Democrat) says Territorial Chief of Staff Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono held an internal meeting to deal with seat allocation. They agreed to reduce the seat number by 50 percent or 38 seats.

Yudhoyono, also a spokesman for the TNI/Police faction, lobbied several factions for the 38 proposed. Finally, the MPR approved the total of 38 as stipulated in Law No. 4/1999 on the structures and position of the MPR, the DPR, and the DPRD.

Outside Senayan, the pressure for military reform was mounting. At a meeting in Ciganjur in 1998, Amien Rais, Akbar Tandjung, Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati suggested that the presence of generals in Senayan should be until 2004. Public demos also earnestly demanded that the military return to barracks.

At a hearing with the Ad Hoc Committee of the MPR Working Body in February 2000, TNI Commander Admiral Widodo A.S. stated the military was ready to withdraw from Senayan in 2004. The TNI staff meeting on April 19-20, 2000 at last decided the military exit from politics by eliminating the dual function. Commander Widodo reported the meeting’s seven-point conclusion to President Abdurrahman Wahid.

The conclusion created a new military paradigm that led to a more pronounced departure from politics. The clear-cut statement of military leaders was not directly proportional to the consensus in Senayan. The MPR draft decree on the role of the military and police still allowed soldiers the opportunity to sit longer in Senayan.

Article 5 of the draft specified the military’s participation in policy determination through the MPR. In the plenary session in August 2000, the provision in the article was added by “no later than 2009”. It was meant as compensation because the military would have no more right to vote and be elected.

The grace period for soldiers faced no significant constraint in Senayan. At the plenary session to endorse the article, only one member lodged a protest. Hartono Marjono (deceased) from the Crescent Star Party faction presented a note of objection and rejected the extension of military assignments until 2009.

In his view, the reform demanded that the TNI’s assignment term be terminated in 2004. Harjono said the article in the decree was mistaken and unresponsive to public aspirations. “I can’t accept it if the TNI/Police later become a target of public denouncement,” he stated as he read out his objection.

The MPR decree kept going. Interruptions, said Speaker Amien Rais, would not in the least reduce the provision already agreed upon. “It’s surprising,” said former TNI/Police faction member Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo. “The political elite even maintained the TNI until 2009.”

At an annual session in 2002, the TNI/Police faction sped up the divorce from Senayan. In a faction internal lobby, Agus Widjojo talked to Commander in Chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto. Agus said the military should hasten the withdrawal from Senayan. “If we do it now, we will depart honorably,” added Agus. Gen. Sutarto agreed and asked for the maintenance of TNI’s honor.

The hastened decision was considered too abrupt. Former Army Chief of Staff Tyasno Sudarto said the attempt to withdraw soldiers from the MPR/DPR was urged by foreign forces. According to him, the military should have remained in the MPR as group delegates. “What happened was the domination of external forces through globalization,” he added.

The military was determined to return to barracks and become professional. In the 2004 annual session, the TNI/Police faction did say goodbye. Kohirin read the verse: …we say goodbye with 10 fingers on the chest....