What does NRC think | The Indonesian army should stay in the barracks

Among world leaders, the president of Indonesia, General BD Prabowo Subianto, is a special specimen. He started his presidency a few months ago with rolling out a precious, and rightly very criticized, populist program to provide free meals to students. As if he is the old wisdom, there is no such thing as a free lunch (the sun goes up for nothing) wanted to logen penalty. But last week this diversion maneuver could not conceal the real agenda of the ex-son of autocrat Soharto (1966-1998). That agenda is: the restoration of the military handle on Indonesian society.

The entire Indonesian parliament has, under pressure from Prabowo, adopted a law on the internal structure of the forces (TNI) that amounts to the return of the infamous’Dwifungsi ‘ Or double functionality of the army, not only militarily but also administratively. That was a pillar under the military dictatorship of Suharto, because the army had access to the most important administrative posts. Thanks to this so-called ‘socio-political’ role, the army was also able to develop economic activity and there was also an unelected group of soldiers in parliament.

Corruption, nepotism and economic conspiracy were the result. But the 1998 student movement put an end to that. The army finally returned to the barracks. And that meant a great victory for the civil society. This time the grip of power is not going with a military coup but simply through parliamentary elections. A human rights activist mentioned the new Indonesian management model NRC striking one « Electoral autocracy« .

The fact that Pabowo is now trying to reverse history has major consequences. Socially and social, only look at the disturbances that are broken down everywhere in the archipelago in protest against the decision of parliament. But, possibly much more serious, also economic consequences. The Jakarta Post warns in a commentary That Pabowo is not only the trust of the voters but also that of the market. It is pointed out on the course of the rupia that has now been pledged to the same low point as at the time of the economic crisis that was partly the cause of the fall of Soharto in 1998. The price fall, apart from geopolitical causes such as Trump’s rates, is explained from the whimsical economic course that Pabowo is sailing with its huge decorated cabinet, are precious free lunch program and now that possible return of the army in economic relationships.

For Indonesia, which wants to take a more international course under Prabowo, as is apparent from the accession of the country to the block of the BRICS in January, a return of the army as a political body is an anachronism.

The political administrative constellation in the country has after the Reformasithe democratization process after Suharto, more and more developed into an oligarchy within which Pabowo is looking for power. It has now grown in Indonesia in the past thirty years Civil Society To call the political class in Jakarta to order. The 280 million mostly young inhabitants of the archipelago, which is geopolitric in the middle of the tension between the US and China, now have to do everything in its power to keep the estate of the 1998 generation.

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