The plan outlines prevention, enforcement and recovery as the military's roles for the counter-terrorism campaign. - Antara
JAKARTA: A renewed plan to include the Indonesian Military (TNI) in the country’s fight against terrorism has sparked concerns among civil society groups, who warn it could further undermine hard-won democratic reforms and threaten civil liberties under the guise of security operations.
The plan is laid out in a draft presidential regulation (Perpres) that outlines the military’s responsibilities in combating terrorism.
It assigns three roles to the armed forces for the counterterrorism campaign, which is among the TNI’s operations other than war: prevention, enforcement and recovery.
According to a seven-page draft of the Perpres obtained by The Jakarta Post, prevention measures include intelligence, as well as territorial and other informational operations aimed at countering potential threats.
These measures will be carried out by “special operations units or other temporary TNI units assigned for such a specific purpose”.
Meanwhile, enforcement is defined as the use of force to be deployed by “the TNI commander under the president’s orders” against terrorist acts, including ones targeting the president or vice president, as well as their families, former leaders, visiting heads of state and “strategic national infrastructure”.
National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) Eddy Hartono, also a retired three-star police general, claimed he had not seen the draft.
But he insisted that the military’s role in counterterrorism aligns with the 2018 Terrorism Law, which designates anti-terrorist operations as a shared responsibility among relevant institutions, including the TNI, as reported by state news agency Antara. T
he law classifies the TNI’s role in counterterrorism as part of a military operation other than war, and requires the government to issue a Perpres if it intends to allow the military to partake in counterterrorism efforts.
A separate regulation, Eddy said, is currently being drafted to govern the status of terrorism in the country, including the designation of threat levels and the corresponding response measures for each level.
Under such a scheme, the military could be deployed in cases of “high-level threats”, he added.
A coalition of 21 civil groups seeking security sector reform has slammed the planned greater involvement of the TNI in counterterrorist measures, as they argue these fall outside the scope of the military’s core mandate of defence.
“The TNI’s involvement should be strictly limited to supporting enforcement operations only when terrorism poses a direct threat to state sovereignty, and only under exceptional circumstances authorised by a presidential decision,” said Julius Ibrani of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), a member of the coalition.
He added that any military deployment to support law enforcement agencies must be carried out solely under emergency circumstances and be regarded as a last resort.
Julius also noted prevention and recovery roles in counterterrorism should remain the responsibility of civilian institutions, such as the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), the BNPT and relevant ministries, rather than the military.
Dimas Bagus Arya of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said military involvement in counterterrorism should be strictly limited to responding to terrorist threats abroad, such as the hijacking of Indonesian vessels or aircraft overseas and operations to rescue Indonesian citizens in other countries.
“The TNI should not be granted preventive or enforcement powers to directly address terrorism within the country,” he added.
“The handling of domestic terrorism must remain within the framework of the criminal justice system.”
The coalition also warned the draft regulation would grant “an excessive and overly elastic expansion of the military’s role”, pointing to, among other issues, the use of the “other operations” term without adequate explanation in specifying the TNI’s terrorism prevention role.
Dimas said the regulation could be used to criminalise critics under the guise of counterterrorism, by labeling critics of the government as “terrorists” and threatening civil society movements, including students and workers.
He cited President Prabowo Subianto’s remarks in response to the nationwide anti-government protests over economic woes in August last year that escalated into days of violent unrest.
At that time, the President claimed some actions during the protests amounted to “treason” and “terrorism”.
Beyond the substance, Ardi Manto Adiputra from Imparsial criticised the use of a Perpres to govern the TNI’s role in counterterrorism. He cited the prevailing TNI Law and a 2000 People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree that explicitly stipulate that any assistance provided by the military in security-related tasks must be regulated by law.
Responding to the criticism, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said details of the military’s role in counterterrorism were not yet final.
He also denied that a Perpres had been promulgated, clarifying that it remained under discussion.
“Why do people always think of the ‘what ifs’?” Prasetyo said on Thursday, as quoted by Kompas.id. “We should focus on the substance.” - The Jakarta Post/ANN
