JAKARTA: Indonesian students staged nationwide protests on Monday against a contentious revision to the military law that activists say threatens the nation\u2019s young democracy.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at regional government offices in various Indonesian cities, including Batam, Kupang, Lampung and Sukabumi, as well as the country\u2019s second-largest city, Surabaya. A smaller group also turned up in front of the parliament building in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
With most of them clad in black, protesters held banners that read \u201cReturn the military to the barracks\u201d and \u201cWatch out! New \u2018New Order\u2019 is right before our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Activists have taken to the streets since Wednesday to protest against controversial amendments to the 2004 Law on Indonesian Armed Forces, which aimed to broaden the military\u2019s role beyond defense.<\/p>\n
Indonesia\u2019s House of Representatives unanimously passed the revisions on Thursday, allowing active military officers to take up more government posts, including the Attorney General\u2019s Office, the Supreme Court and the Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs.<\/p>\n
The changes also raise retirement ages by several years for most ranks. Highest-ranking four-star generals can now serve until 63, for example, up from 60.<\/p>\n
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 (and) human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, a former three-star army general, said it will make the military more effective.<\/p>\n
In a speech after the bill was passed into law, he said the amendments were necessary because \u201cgeopolitical changes and global military technology require the military to transform \u2026 to face conventional and non-conventional conflicts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The revisions were proposed by allies of President Prabowo Subianto, who took office last October and served as a general under the dictator Suharto.<\/p>\n
Activists have warned that the move is a threat to Indonesia\u2019s democracy, which the nation gained in 1998, after 32 years of Suharto\u2019s \u201cNew Order\u201d military dictatorship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bill was not made with proper public consultation. It was rushed,\u201d Andreas Harsono, senior Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Arab News. \u201cThis law elevates the threats to Indonesia\u2019s democracy. It\u2019s not only regressing but going back to square one.\u201d<\/p>\n
He highlighted how youth protests erupted immediately across Indonesia, with students \u201cdemanding the amendments to be canceled,\u201d as the revisions still have to be signed into law by Prabowo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am pretty surprised to see their anger. It showed that these young people are not happy with the bigger roles of the military in non-security affairs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Okky Madasari, Indonesian novelist and sociologist, said the law could be used as a \u201clegal tool to further expand military\u2019s involvement in businesses\u201d and jobs that have nothing to do with defense or military, which are \u201creminiscent of Suharto\u2019s New Order Regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told Arab News: \u201cThe immediate results will (mean) the further deterioration of Indonesia\u2019s democracy, with less and less freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the nationwide protests, along with active social media campaigns across platforms, show that such dangers are not lost on some Indonesians.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndonesian youths, who have been exposed to cosmopolitanism and globally accepted values and are very aware of their rights and obligation, will continue to forge a resisting force against this growing authoritarianism and militarism under Prabowo Subianto,\u201d Madasari said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JAKARTA: Indonesian students staged nationwide protests on Monday against a contentious revision to the military law that activists say threatens the nation\u2019s young democracy. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at regional government offices in various Indonesian cities, including Batam, Kupang, Lampung and Sukabumi, as well as the country\u2019s second-largest city, Surabaya. A smaller group also turned …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":78845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78846,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78834\/revisions\/78846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}