JAKARTA: The deployment of Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel against a student protest denouncing wasteful state spending drew criticism from protesters and civil society groups, who said that crowd control falls outside the mandate of defence forces.
Students from universities across Greater Jakarta, led by University of Indonesia’s student union BEM UI, planned to stage a rally at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Friday (June 12). But police officers intercepted their buses en route and directed them to hold the rally at the Senayan Legislative Complex instead.
The students then disembarked and marched several kilometres toward the traffic circle in the heart of the capital. However, just 400m from the traffic circle, they were blocked by four layers of security cordon. The frontmost barricade consisted of lines of police officers, with military personnel positioned directly behind them in a second layer.
The presence of TNI personnel in green uniforms is a rare sight at protests and left students concerned.
“We feel intimidated when confronted by the police and the military. We only want to make our voices heard,” Anandaku Dimas Chattaristo, one of UI protesters, said in the rally on Friday.
He called on President Prabowo Subianto to “stop intimidating, repressing and obstructing” student protesters through police and military barricades.
Raka Andhika, another UI protester, said they were driven by a genuine desire to improve the lives of Indonesians, asking not to be treated “as if we were enemies or armed criminals”.
The protest, dubbed #MenujuIndonesiaBangkrut (Heading to Bankrupt Indonesia), called for Prabowo to curb wasteful spending, lower fuel and staple food prices and halt the President’s flagship multibillion-dollar free meal and rural cooperative programmes.
The military deployment also drew criticism from civil groups and activists, including those grouped under the Civil Society Coalition for Security Sector Reform which described the move as a “misguided policy”.
“Engaging the military in protests is a clear form of militarisation of civilian space. It’s even more troubling when it enters democratic spaces and restricts freedom of expression,” military expert Al Araf of Centra Initiative, a member of the coalition, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
He said the deployment repeated a pattern seen during the authoritarian rule of former president Soeharto, when “the military were used as instruments to confront groups critical of those in power”.
Al Araf further warned that continued military involvement in handling public demonstrations could undermine the professionalism of the armed forces as a national defense institution, while eroding democratic norms and civil liberties.
The coalition noted that under existing law, defence resources including TNI personnel may be mobilised in response to threats such as armed rebellion, territorial violations and other dangers that threaten state sovereignty, territorial integrity or national security.
Separately, Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid raised concerns about the potential use of excessive force by the TNI, noting that soldiers “are not trained in crowd control”.
Usman recalled how the police’s use of excessive force during nationwide anti-government protests in August last year led to mass arrests, criminalisation and even the death of online motorcycle transportation driver Affan Kurniawan, who was run over by a police tactical vehicle while merely passing by the protest area in Jakarta.
Responding to the criticisms, TNI spokesperson Brig Gen Muhammad Nas said on Saturday that while the handling of protests falls under police authority, “military personnel were deployed at the police's request to assist [with security operations]”.
The TNI deployed 500 soldiers that day to help some 3,600 police officers secure the demonstration that involved an estimated 1,000 protesters.
Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Budi Hermanto had earlier defended the interception of protesters, saying that the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle was off-limits for public demonstrations.
“It is a major traffic node in Jakarta. [...] Congestion there would disrupt other roads and disrupt mobility for the wider public,” he said on Friday.
He cited a 2015 Jakarta gubernatorial regulation, which stipulates that the city administration provide three areas for public demonstrations, including one near the Senayan Legislative Complex. The regulation, however, does not explicitly prohibit demonstrations outside the three locations.
The protest on Friday proceeded peacefully with students delivering their demands in front of the barricades, although some individuals without alma mater jackets briefly attempted to push back police's shields and threw plastic bottles at officers. Jakarta governor spokesperson Chico Hakim, meanwhile, told the Post on Sunday the city administration “fully supports the right to peaceful protest in line with the 1998 law on freedom of expression in public”.
The law, enacted shortly after the fall of Soeharto and his authoritarian regime, guarantees the right to hold demonstrations in public spaces, except at the presidential palace, places of worship, military installations, hospitals, airports or seaports, railway stations, terminals and vital national objects. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
