By calling upon citizens’ supposed rights and obligations to defend the nation, Indonesia’s military is marching down a perilous path, writes Bhatara Ibnu Reza.
In early January, the Indonesian public was shocked to discover that the military had been training the notorious Islamic Defenders’ Front (Fron Pembela Islam or FPI) in Lebak, Banten.
According to news reports, the military trained the vigilante group, who played a major role in Jakarta’s recent anti-Ahok protests, as part of its Bela Negara (State Defence) Program, codified by Indonesia’s 2015 Defence White Paper.
The news was first broadcast via FPI’s Instagram account with pictures of the training going viral across cyberspace, including exercises with the army (TNI) in Madura.
Faced with such controversy and a wave of criticism from civil society, the Siliwangi Military Command removed the Lebak district regional commander for violating procedure.
But the incident is yet another controversy in a long list of troubles that has plagued Bela Negara since its inception. More significantly, this latest misstep is based on a flawed ideology that brings the Indonesian military and citizens too close together for comfort.
Bela Negara aims to recruit civilians to defend the state by providing basic military training, including weapon use, and the reinforcement of state ideology among ordinary citizens. The program also has a militaristic style, and no particular law has been made to legitimise the program.
According to Indonesia’s 2015 Defence White Paper, in 10 years the program will recruit 100 million militant cadres across the archipelago. But these ‘militant cadres’ are not recognised under any defence law, and it is not clear whether they are combatants or civilians.
The only legal basis for the program is Article 27(3) and Article 30(1) of the Constitution; these highlights both the right and duty of citizens to defend the state under the Total People’s Defence and Security System.
Originally, Total People’s Defence was Indonesia’s experience of guerilla warfare during the war of independence. Two key elements characterise it. First, the potential for all citizens to fight the ‘enemy’, and second, the blurred distinction between the military and the people during an armed resistance.
Legally, the ideology breaches the laws of war since the implementation of Total People’s Defence does not clearly distinguish between civilians and combatants, which is the basic international rule protecting civilians in armed conflicts. The distinction principle imposes obligations on conflicting parties to differentiate between combatants and civilians. In addition, combatants only have the right to attack legitimate military targets, and civilians are immune from targeting unless they take a direct part in hostilities.
The intention to obscure the distinction was not without purpose – this being to ensure the military remains influential in the social and political life of Indonesia. The ideology also mirrors the Army’s self-declared sense of unity with the people (kemanunggalan TNI dan rakyat).
The Army adopts this position by defining themselves as being one with the people and identifying their interests as the people’s interests. The stance also allows the military to undermine the civilian government if the government is seen not to act in the people’s interests, and defend their interest in politics.
The Army also uses the ideology of Total People’s Defence to act independently and empower their territorial commands to form so-called civilian people’s resistance, also known as militias. These are created as a pretext under citizens’ right to defend the state.
These militia groups have been recruited, trained and supported by the state armed forces to do ‘the dirty work’ of the military against separatist elements and society’s undesirables, mostly in conflict areas like East Timor and Aceh. Its most recent incarnation is seen in the district military command ‘tacitly’ providing training to FPI under Bela Negara.
As such, Bela Negara is simply another way for the military to engage in national politics through the militarisation of the civilian population under their supposed rights and obligations when it comes to defending the nation.
This activity is reinforced by the use of terms like proxy war against foreign intervention, and extreme ideologies and external influences like communism and homosexuality. By choosing to engage with and confront such issues, it is easy for the military to find allies with vigilante groups like FPI. Furthermore, these groups can easily transform themselves into Bela Negara groups and become the military’s proxy.
Most worryingly, though, with its illegal use of a dangerous ideology, Bela Negara is cultivating a culture of violence and breaching the law of armed conflict.
Bhatara Ibnu Reza is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, where he is researching civilian involvement in state defence. He is also as a senior researcher for Imparsial, the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor.
Surely the author has forgotten to put quotation marks into the following statement and/or the editors of New Mandala have forgotten to remind him: “This activity is reinforced by the use of terms like ‘proxy war against foreign intervention, and extreme ideologies like communism and homosexuality’ “. Or does New Mandala really propose to think of homosexuality as an “ideology” and a “dangerous” one for that? I do understand that NM is interested in new articles, and this one is actually rather informative, but please read and edit the stuff before publishing it, otherwise it’s embarrassing.
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Hi Marc
Thanks for reading and the feedback. Unfortunately two words were mistakenly cut in the original edit of this piece. That has been corrected.
All the best,
James
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So much negative press about Indonesia, currently. Frankly, I switch off. So reminiscent of Yellow Peril, “threat from the North”, regurgitated., refashioned, re-packaged, updated.
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My complain is this : why so much negativism when in fact our current situation is looking up, or at least the anti-reform-development faction is currently losing against the government? Why can’t just criticize Indonesia for the sake of exposing the reality in details instead of wasting so much time cherry picking on bits that only serves to feed white ego?
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This article so reeks of “here is Indonesian discourses for bule dummies” cloaked in alarmism. This article would fit better when Bela Negara was only in its first weeks and months and the actors behind them were indeed on upperhand. These days, those people’s very grip on power are slipping, and the Jokowi’s regime is winning. If anything we’re expecting a landslide progress of reforms this year, what with Luhut has basically declared our military to operate in American manner and no less then Wiranto himself has encouraged the Chinese to pursue carreer in military, government and education, effectively inviting them into the system.
I remember new mandala has an article containing astute analysis upon Indonesian vigilante politics, but these days the situation is evolving beyond that. If anything we’re currently seeing the rise of popularly mandated security state based on neoliberal civil principles, which is in itself is not free of critics and has its own batch of worries to offer. But any appeal to Orba style vigilantist thought suppression and other Orbaist MOs are now becoming outdated, since a new generation of power structure is currently on the rise.
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I’m not going to say anything about Chris Beale apart from the fact that his air-headed remarks about Thailand are self-parody enough, no need for him to start to talk about Indonesia, a country he knows even less about.
But Mohammed Asher – I would be so glad if you are right to think that Jokowi’s side is winning. Why don’t you write an article about it?
As it is, however, the “blasphemy” trial against the Christian Chinese-Indonesian governor of Jakarta is still running, while the head of anti-Pancasila FPI has not been named suspect yet although he is clearly working against the constitution of Indonesia. It’s not more than 2 or 3 weeks ago that the defense minister of Indonesia defended (no pun intended) training FPI and said he would like to train ISIS also.
Last year, 2016, started with a hate campaign against gay, lesbians, and trans-people (LGBT) , then anti-Chinese-Indonesian resentment was revived, by people including the then Indonesian ambassador to Japan, followed by anti-communist paranoia, although I have met many Islamists in Indonesia but not communist yet, then 2016 ended with the most prominent Christian politician of Indonesia, the governor of Jakarta, “Ahok”, being put on trial for “blasphemy” because he has allegedly “insulted” the Koran. And all of this while the openly anti-Pancasila, so anti-Indonesian FPI gets trained by the military. How can you expect serious blogs like New Mandala and other foreign media not to publish articles about these very frightening developments in Indonesia?
Btw I hope you are right and Jokowi and the reformists will win, because I love Indonesia. But Western media being silent about the all too frightening recent developments in Indonesia would not make that more likely to happen but less. – Write your article, I for one would be very interested !
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