Indonesian students rally against revised laws

Student protests have broken out in major cities of Indonesia. These were against the new law passed by the House of Representatives last Thursday which raised the retirement age of the defence personnel, and it has also allowed them to serve in other ministries.

This was prohibited in the 2004 Indonesian Armed Forces Law (TNI). Students suspect that this is a way to let the military back into government by President Prabowo Subianto’s administration. This is seen as a return to the days of President Suharto, whose 32-year military dictatorship was brought down in 1998.

Suharto’s dictatorial rule carried the self-proclaimed motto of “New Order”. The students are fiercely supporting the democratic freedoms and they are on alert of any sign of the return of military controlling civilian administration.

The issue of relaxing rules for military party participation in government was not the only reason for students’ anger against the government. They have also been protesting against the US$19 billion budgetary cuts as an austerity measure. There is a sense of despair among the youth about the future of the country. A hashtag that has been trending recently has been ‘Just Flee First”, implying that the youth should leave the country and look for a future elsewhere, which reflected their lack of hope in the country’s future.

Puan Maharani, speaker of the House of Representatives, the lower house, who led the passing of the legislation, said that the revised law would remain “grounded in democratic values and principles, civilian supremacy (and) human rights.” He justified the amendments, saying that “geopolitical changes and global military technology require the military to transform...to face conventional and non-conventional conflicts.”

Okky Madasari, novelist and sociologist, said that the new law could be used as a “legal tool to further expand the military’s involvement in businesses” and to open jobs for the military which have nothing to do with defence or security. This, she said, resembles “Suharto’s New Order Regime”. She feels that the immediate impact of the amended law would be the “further deterioration of Indonesia’s democracy, with less and less of freedom of speech.”

She said, “Indonesian 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.”

Indonesia, with its over 200 million population, is considered an important economic hub in the global order. But political leaders in the country facing a huge population that is struggling to get out of poverty, tend to resort to populist measures and simultaneously authoritarianism.

It is a positive development that students have become vocal representatives of the spirit of democracy in the country. It would be difficult for politicians to overturn democracy and become dictators overnight. The fear is whether the students can carry the burden of resistance on their shoulders alone when all political parties are busy indulging in deals to get their share of the political pie.

But so far the students have proved the cynics wrong, and they are not letting the government get away with its authoritarian ways. They are on their feet and for ever vigilant. But with the economy caught in a global slump, the students can only hope to protest so much. Despite assurances of adhering to democratic norms, governments in middle income and low income countries are sure to feel threatened by student protests, and crush them in sheer panic. Democracy has survived in Indonesia because unlike in the Cold War period, the United States is unwilling to underwrite financial support to the armed forces of Asian and African countries. Indonesia’s democracy might go through highs and lows but it will not collapse because the army will not take over the burden of ruling a country in economic peril.