Ray Rangkuti: DPN Could Become a New Path for Military Dominance

JAKARTA - Political observer Ray Rangkuti assessed that the formation of the National Defense Council (DPN) through Presidential Regulation Number 202 of 2024 has the potential to expand the dominance of military actors in the country's policymaking.

Ray made this statement during a discussion at the Indonesia Youth Congress entitled "Challenging the National Defense Council or DPN: Strategic Strengthening or Duplication of Power in the State Defense System?" in Jakarta, Friday, May 15.

The discussion also featured military observers Connie Rahakundini Bakrie, political science academic Firdaus Syam National University, Faculty of Law academic Binus University Muhammad Reza Zaki, and public policy and good governance researcher Gian Kasogi.

Ray said that conceptually the DPN should be a mechanism for monitoring defense policies, including overseeing the performance of the TNI and the Ministry of Defense in carrying out the state's mandate.

However, according to him, the current institutional design of the DPN is considered problematic because it is led and filled by actors with similar backgrounds.

"The National Defense Council should oversee how the TNI behaves and how the Ministry of Defense carries out its state duties. But what is happening now, this institution will actually be led by the same people, those with a military background," said Ray.

He assessed that the condition shows the increasing role of the military in various civilian sectors. According to him, access to strategic positions is now increasingly open to the military, even outside the defense sector.

"Now it's very easy to get a position. The knowledge is only one, namely the army's knowledge. If you have that knowledge, you can lead the DPN, you can become a commissioner, you can work on the Red and White Village Cooperative, and you can do many other things," he said.

Ray also highlighted the inequality in the distribution of public positions between the civilian and military sectors. He assessed that civilian professionals with various backgrounds of expertise actually have more limited space than actors with a military background.

"If the civilian's knowledge can be different majors, but the position is only one. If the soldier's knowledge is one, but can get a position everywhere," he said.

Criticism of the formation of the DPN was also conveyed by public policy and good governance researcher Gian Kasogi. According to Gian, the main problem of the DPN is not the urgency of its formation, but the configuration of authority that has the potential to concentrate too many strategic functions in one axis of power.

He assessed that the institutional design of the DPN needed to be critically tested so that there was no blurring of the boundaries between the functions of formulating policies, managing information, and providing strategic advice to the President.

"In a healthy system, we don't wait for abuse of power to happen. We have to test the design of the institution from the beginning. The question is, does the DPN really strengthen the system or does it concentrate power in one hand?" said Gian.

Meanwhile, Binus University Faculty of Law academician Muhammad Reza Zaki assessed that institutional models such as DPN are not new in the history of Indonesian government, both in the Old Order, New Order, and post-reformasi.

However, according to Zaki, one of the serious problems of the DPN lies in its institutional governance which is considered closed and difficult to be supervised by the public, including by the DPR.

He highlighted the potential problems in the management of the DPN budget because the use of the budget can be hidden behind the excuse of national interests or state secrecy.

"In addition to institutional governance that is problematic or prone to abuse, the public will also find it very difficult to oversee the allocation of funds to the DPN," said Zaki.

Legally, Zaki also assessed that a number of provisions in the Presidential Decree on the formation of the DPN were still multi-interpretable, including the article that opens the space for the President to give additional tasks to the DPN without clear limits.

In addition, he assessed that there was not yet an adequate portion for the civilian element to carry out the check and balance function for the institution.

According to Zaki, the existence of the DPN has the potential to burden the state budget if it is not accompanied by a clear and accountable institutional design.

"There are many articles that are multi-interpretable and prone to abuse. Even before there was a DPN, the defense sector alone absorbed a very large state budget," he said.