{"id":262799,"date":"2025-03-20T09:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T09:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/indonesian-parliament-passes-bill-that-critics-say-evokes-authoritarian-past\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T09:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T09:54:12","slug":"indonesian-parliament-passes-bill-that-critics-say-evokes-authoritarian-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/indonesian-parliament-passes-bill-that-critics-say-evokes-authoritarian-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Indonesian Parliament Passes Bill That Critics Say Evokes Authoritarian Past"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/20\/multimedia\/20int-indonesia-military-law-02-wlgk\/20int-indonesia-military-law-02-wlgk-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Indonesian Parliament Passes Bill That Critics Say Evokes Authoritarian Past\" title=\"Indonesian Parliament Passes Bill That Critics Say Evokes Authoritarian Past\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Indonesia\u2019s Parliament on Thursday unanimously passed a controversial overhaul of a law that will allocate more civilian posts for military officers, defying student protests and raising fears of the erosion of freedoms in the world\u2019s third-largest democracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The revisions were proposed by allies of President Prabowo Subianto, a feared former general who served under the dictator Suharto. The move sets up a potential showdown between the government and critics, who have warned for weeks that the amendments evoke Indonesia\u2019s authoritarian past.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Prabowo won a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/15\/world\/asia\/indonesia-election-president-prabowo.html\" title=\"\">landslide election victory<\/a> last year with the backing of his predecessor, Joko Widodo. His ascent to power and his human rights record revived fears of the future of one of the world\u2019s most <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/13\/world\/asia\/indonesia-election-democracy-party.html\" title=\"\">vibrant democracies<\/a>. In the late 1990s, he was discharged from the army after he was found responsible for the kidnapping of political dissidents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The revisions, which have to be signed into law by Mr. Prabowo, clear the way for more military officers to fill civilian positions such as those in the attorney general\u2019s office. The president has already <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/indonesias-new-leader-expands-militarys-role-test-fragile-democracy-2025-01-28\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">expanded the role of the military<\/a> in civilian functions, including in his flagship school lunch program.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Puan Maharani, the speaker of the lower house who led the vote in a plenary session, said the revised law would remain \u201cgrounded in democratic values and principles, civilian supremacy, human rights.\u201d In a speech, Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said the amendments were necessary because the army has to transform \u201cto face conventional and nonconventional threats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The government has said the current law, which was passed in 2004, is outdated. It barred the military\u2019s presence in Parliament and formally ended the so-called \u201cdual function\u201d practice that had allowed the armed forces to interfere in politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Rights activists have accused Mr. Prabowo\u2019s government of ramming the amendments through without proper consultation with civil society groups. On Thursday, before the bill was passed, dozens of students gathered at the gates of Parliament in Jakarta, holding banners that said: \u201cReturn soldiers to the barracks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe are truly entering a situation where the public and society no longer have control over formal institutions,\u201d said Titi Anggraini, a lecturer of constitutional law at University of Indonesia. \u201cPower is centralized and authoritarian.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As of Wednesday, a coalition of civil society groups had collected <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/en.tempo.co\/read\/1987743\/12000-people-sign-petition-rejecting-return-of-military-dual-function-through-tni-bill\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">12,000 signatures<\/a> protesting the law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a statement, Muhamad Isnur, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, an N.G.O. that provides free legal assistance to marginalized and underprivileged communities, compared Indonesia\u2019s political parties to \u201cbuffaloes led by the nose, following the will of those in power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The bill, Mr. Muhamad said, merely serves \u201cthe interests of military elites and civilian politicians who are either unable or unwilling to adhere to democratic rules of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Rin Hindryati<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/20\/world\/asia\/indonesia-military-law.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indonesia\u2019s Parliament on Thursday unanimously passed a controversial overhaul of a law that will allocate more civilian posts for military officers, defying student protests and raising fears of the erosion of freedoms in the world\u2019s third-largest democracy. The revisions were proposed by allies of President Prabowo Subianto, a feared former general who served under the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/20\/multimedia\/20int-indonesia-military-law-02-wlgk\/20int-indonesia-military-law-02-wlgk-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25527,229,3609,43104,31888,5769,26535,137130,137132,3321,228,137131,163229],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262801,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262799\/revisions\/262801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}