Netray Monitoring: Netizens Are Worried About The Awakening Of Dwifunction After The TNI Bill Is Ratified

Protesters put up banners while holding an action in front of the DPRD Building in Malang City, East Java, Sunday (23/3/2025). (ANTARA/Ari Bowo Sucipto/YU)

JAKARTA Revision of Law Number 34 of 2004 concerning the Indonesian National Army or the TNI is in the spotlight of the wider community. One of the changes that have been heavily criticized is the expansion of the role of active TNI in government which allows them to occupy more positions in ministries and state institutions.

Commission I of the DPR and the government held a closed meeting at the Fairmont Hotel, a luxury hotel in the Senayan area, Central Jakarta on March 18, 2025 to discuss the TNI Bill which will be brought to a plenary meeting to be ratified.

Two days later, this bill was officially passed as law after obtaining approval at the DPR plenary meeting.

There are three points of the TNI Bill that are of concern, namely regarding the increase in the number of ministries and institutions that active soldiers can occupy from 10 to 15, extended retirement age, and strengthening the role of the TNI in military operations other than war.

The TNI Bill became the main topic of online media coverage over the past week. From Netray's monitoring with the keywords of the TNI Bill in the period 14-20 March 2025, 1,132 articles were found from 122 media.

Using the Hot Issue feature, Netray knows what topics dominate during the week of monitoring. Then it can be seen that the mass dwarf appears quite prominent.

This is the impact of the ratification of the TNI Bill which was carried out as quickly as possible and did not involve the people. Students to the Indonesian people are busy demonstrating in various regions.

One of them is from Trisakti University, which has held an action since Wednesday (19/3/2025) in front of the DPR Building. They firmly rejected all of the bills and urged the termination of the placement of active TNI-Polti officers in current civilian positions.

A demonstration was also held by students in Makassar. Students who are members of the Makassar Student Activists Movement (GAM) held an action on Jalan AP Pettarani to reject the TNI Bill.

Student activists in Makassar assessed that this revision has the potential to restore the concept of ABRI's dyafunction as during the New Order era, so that it is considered a serious threat to democracy in Indonesia.

The mass action was not only carried out by students, but also the academic community and lecturers in Yogyakarta showed their concerns. UGM held an action against the TNI Bill on March 18 at Balairung.

Various rejection actions have also emerged in major cities in Indonesia such as Medan, Padang, Bengkulu, Yogyakarta Malang, Bali, East Kalimantan, and others.

However, the demonstration against the ratification of the TNI Bill took place in various areas, including Jakarta. In Senayan, the mass of the action to knock down the fence of the MPR/DPR Building on Thursday (20/3/2025) and burn tires in front of the building as a form of protest. While doing the speech, they condemned the decision that was considered detrimental. This riot also caused several students from the University of Indonesia (UI) to be injured.

One thing that is most worrying about the revision of the TNI Law is the return of the TNI's dual function. Simply put, TNI's dual function can be interpreted as a concept that gives the military two roles, namely maintaining security and being involved in politics and governance. This system has occurred during the New Order era.

Komnas HAM Commissioner Saurlin P. Siagian stated that the TNI Bill has the potential to restore dwifunction and militarism. Saurlin said that the Komnas HAM study found several problems, including the expansion of the TNI's authority in law enforcement that was contrary to democratic principles.

"It has the potential for human rights violations in a security approach to the public service sector, as well as causing ambiguities in law enforcement in the event of a violation," said Saurlin.

From the government side, member of the Indonesian House of Representatives Hilmy Muhammad criticized the ratification of the TNI Bill for threatening democracy and military reform.

However, the government continues to convince the public that the TNI Bill will not produce TNI dwifunctions. One of them was revealed by the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Budi Gunawan. He said that the revision of the TNI Law was not to restore duality, but to clarify the limitations of TNI positions in ministries and institutions.

Netray also monitors TikTok social media to capture public opinion on this issue, using tni's keywords, tni's revision, andruutni in the same period.

As a result, 231 TikTok video uploads emerged from 191 users discussing this topic, "said a report byNetray.

One of the popular uploads came from Axel @acjoo's account, who created content with Andovi Da Lopez. He highlighted the article that has the potential to be a problem is article 7 paragraph 2 that soldiers may interfere in internet affairs if anything is considered dangerous.

The problem is that there is no clear benchmark for what makes the country in danger and can be misused by the government so that they become anti-criticism. And the discussion meeting was held secretly at the Fairmont Hotel, Jakarta in a speeding system overnight. Until the public could not access the draft revision of the TNI Law, it showed that there was no transparency from the government in revising the law.

In the midst of many accounts that are contrary to the revision of the TNI Law, the @hidden.cam7 account is very supportive that the law is passed. In his upload he wrote that the TNI Bill must be ratified somehow the way and process and most importantly the final result.

"This opinion, which is contrary to public domination, was able to achieve 162.7 thousand likes, 10.1 thousand comments, and was re-shared 2.7 thousand times," Netray reported.