Indonesia's Slide Toward Militarism

Concern grows among civil libertarians

Last week, the normally staid Jakarta Post, Indonesia’s leading English-language daily, published a blistering editorial saying that 27 years after the strongman Suharto fell from power, “the nation now stands at a crossroads as it reaches what some pro-democracy advocates describe as “the end of political reform,” marked by the dismantling of democratic institutions and the return of authoritarian tendencies.

One by one, “the key mandates and institutions of reform have been dismantled, from anticorruption to civilian control over the military, everything the Reform era stood for has been undone,” the newspaper quoted a source as saying.

Although the press has absorbed the brunt of this erosion, there has been plenty more. Protesters including students against tax hikes in Jakarta and rights abuses in Papua have faced suppression and arrests for their activism, an environmental expert is facing a lawsuit and harassment for testifying in court, a punk band has had to apologize and withdraw a song on police corruption, among other concerns, according to an Asian Human Rights Commission report in February, raising deep concerns about President Prabowo Subianto’s seriousness in protecting freedom of expression and opinion.

“We are very concerned about democratic backsliding in Indonesia and particularly how the government is weakening the reforms that many Indonesian youth now take for granted,” said Elaine Pearson, the Sydney-based Asia Director of Human Rights Watch. “During the reformasi period there was a concerted effort to get the military out of politics and enshrine genuine civilian rule. New legal changes undermine that by granting active members of the military a role in civilian affairs including in the justice system.”

If The Post is the canary in the mine, apparently the canary has been chirping for some time. Democracy advocates had already been growing concerned toward the end of the 10-year reign of former President Joko Widodo, accusing him of manipulating laws and influencing judicial appointments to further his political agenda, increasing state surveillance and cracking down on dissent, restricting free speech and assembly.

As president, Jokowi, as he is known, presided over the legislative defanging of the once-vaunted Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, pushing new restrictions through the House of Representatives and appointing indifferent commissioners. Then, late in his term, he engineered a Constitutional Court revision of the law to allow for his underage son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to run successfully as Prabowo’s vice president.

But since the inauguration of the 73-year-old Prabowo, a onetime commanding general of Indonesia’s Kostrad forces until he was summarily fired for civil rights excesses in the wake of Suharto’s fall, the concerns have become a drumbeat, raising fears that despite his election by the democratic process, he is reverting to the authoritarianism that characterized him when he was Suharto’s son-in-law.

Amnesty International, in a stark report last November, characterized his “long military and political career…as littered with abuses, including alleged war crimes” and organizing “gangs of hooded killers to terrorize and subdue civilians associated with [East Timor’s] independence movement.”

As Asia Sentinel reported on February 18, Prabowo is “steadily blurring the lines between an elected civilian government and the military, the TNI (Tentera Nasional Indonesia) and known in the Suharto era as ABRI, or Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia. He has expanded the armed forces' role in civil government to the alarm of critics, including having them play a major role in his flagship Free Nutritional Meal Program (MBG) for school children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers.”

In March, at Prabowo’s behest, the parliament unanimously approved amendments to the armed forces law to significantly expand the military’s role in civilian governance and weaken legal checks. The law, opposed almost unanimously by Indonesia’s rights NGOs as well as the New York-based Human Rights Watch, enabled enable officials to fill more civilian posts with active-duty military personnel, including in the justice system and state-owned companies, recalling the era when Indonesia labored under dwifungsi, the military’s “dual function” central to Suharto’s authoritarian military rule, when civil and press freedoms were curtailed and corruption was rampant.

The Post followed its May 21 editorial outlining concerns over the death of reform with a second one two days later, raising fears about the takeover of civil positions and saying that “Since President Prabowo took office in October, the government has increasingly tapped the security forces to fill senior bureaucratic roles, reviving concerns about the erosion of reforms that once sought to dismantle their involvement in civilian affairs.”

Then, on May 25, the respected news portal Detik, which had once been ordered closed in the 1990s by the Suharto autocracy, suddenly took down an opinion piece written by a Finance Ministry civil servant critical of the appointment of three-star Army general Djaka Budi Utama as the ministry’s customs and excise director. After the article ran, the writer was struck twice by unidentified motorcyclists wearing full-face helmets, once in the morning and a few hours later. Detik later said the piece was taken down “at the writer’s request” after the person raised safety concerns. In other words, he was petrified that the military was out to get him. Djaka was an officer under Prabowo when troops under Prabowo's command kidnapped and tortured democracy activists in the runup to Suharto’s fall.

As The Post and Detik can attest, it is the press under Prabowo that is taking the brunt of the new crackdown. Journalists have been beaten while covering protests, physically attacked by unidentified assailants, and threatened at their workplace. “Many of the recent attacks appear to be reprisals for criticism by the media of amendments to the armed forces law that significantly expand the military’s role in governance and weaken legal checks on abusive officials. Senior government officials have also dangerously alleged without basis that journalists and media outlets “promote foreign interest,” according to an April 22 report by Human Rights Watch.

The most troubling of those occurred in mid-March when unknown foes had a severed pig’s head delivered in a cardboard box to Francisca Christy Rosana, the host of Bocor Alus Politik (Smooth Leaks), the popular podcast of the crusading Jakarta weekly magazine TEMPO. At the time, press officials laid the blame at the door of President Prabowo Subianto because of TEMPO’s deeply critical reporting on the passage on the revision of the military law to allow military officers to serve in other government posts without resigning from the armed forces. A week later, cleaners at TEMPO’s office in Jakarta found a box on the doorstep of six beheaded rats, an apparent act of intimidation against Bocor Alus Politik’s six hosts for criticizing the Prabowo administration.

As Asia Sentinel reported in April, to serve as a barrier to reporting from outside, authorities introduced a new layer of security beyond their convoluted and bureaucratic “clearing house” process, overseen by a record 18 state institutions from 12 different ministries, including the National Police and the State Intelligence Agency, granting broader powers to law enforcement to monitor foreign journalists, drawing drawn sharp criticism from local and international democracy activists and press freedom advocates, who argue that the rule could further erode media freedoms.

Journalists have also been forced to delete photos and videos from their phones after filming protests, unidentified men twice smashed the windshield of a podcast host, military personnel have been implicated in attacks on journalists, two men on a motorcycle threw a gasoline bomb at the newsroom of Jubi news media, an independent newspaper, burning two cars.

In February, the National Police issued a regulation requiring foreign journalists and researchers to obtain police permits to work in “certain locations” without clarifying what or where they are. The regulation, which took effect on March 10, grants police the authority to issue certificates so that they can “provide services and protection” to foreign journalists, especially in conflict-prone areas, the National Police spokesman said.

Indonesia’s Journalist Safety Committee recorded multiple digital attacks against media companies, including more than a billion DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks against Tempo’s website in April, crippling services for several hours. Other news outlets included Konde, Project Multatuli, and Narasi TV. Several journalists told Human Rights Watch that they had become more cautious in their reporting because of these frequent attacks.

“The Prabowo administration could make a stronger case for Indonesia being a rights-respecting democracy by seriously investigating alleged threats and attacks against the media,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division. “The authorities should also withdraw unnecessary restrictions, including travel permit requirements, on foreign journalists and let them do their jobs.”