Observer: Investigation Team Needed To Care For Apparatus Violence In Demonstration Against TNI Law

The demonstration incident rejected the TNI Law (Karisa VOI)

JAKARTA Sociologist from the Jakarta State University (UNJ), Rakhmat Hidayat, assessed that the massive wave of protests in various regions indicated the great public anger towards the DPR's decision and the government to ratify the TNI Law.

This is because the civil society sees the three main points agreed by the DPR and the government in the revision of the TNI Law which indicates the return of the TNI's function, namely the addition of civilian positions for active TNI personnel, the expansion of TNI's involvement in military operations other than war (OMSP), the extension of the retirement period of TNI officers.

Unfortunately, the actions of students in various regions against the TNI Law were responded to with repressive actions by the security forces. Not only by Polri personnel, cases of violence against action participants were also reportedly carried out by TNI personnel who were assisted to guard civil society protests.

Of the 47 regions that held demonstrations against the TNI Law over the past week, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) found cases of violence by officers occurred in 10 regions. Apart from students, there are also journalists who are victims of repressive actions by the authorities.

"Activities in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang, Malang, Purwokerto. This is indeed very massive. This shows that their actions represent public anger, representing public disappointment regarding the ratification of the TNI Law," said Rakhmat, Friday, March 28, 2025.

He stated that demonstrators who reject the TNI Law should not be repressed with brutal acts, and even must be arrested. Repressive actions in overcoming demonstrations are not in accordance with democratic principles. They are disappointed because they are not heard and the right to issue opinions and demonstrations is guaranteed by law. Therefore, if there is a discourse on investigative proposals, that is what we must convey because many cases of handling in these various regions are out of reasonableness," he added.

Rakhmat emphasized that the civil society coalition needed to form an investigative team to investigate cases of violence by the authorities against protesters against the TNI Law in various regions. One of the focuses of the investigation is to find out whether the massive repressive actions of the apparatus were structured and commanded by the highest police officers.

Many procedural boundaries carried out by the police were violated. There should be no need to be handcuffed, no need to be arrested, no need to be taken to the police station. So, enough with dialogue, enough with a blockade. So, there is no need to do violence and so on because these students are young people who are experiencing a peak of thought and a peak of enthusiasm," he explained.

Evaluation of the work of Polri personnel in dealing with demonstrations needs to be carried out in order to prevent repressive actions by the apparatus from recurring. In the long term, there will be actions whose escalation may increase," concluded Rakhmat.