Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The Indonesian military has drafted a bill that would allow it to deploy troops anywhere in the country without having to inform the civilian government, sparking fears that it could be used to advantage by coup plotters.

The proposed law – a copy of which was shown to the South China Morning Post – was quietly drawn up by senior military officers over the past few months. It will probably be presented to parliament in the next three months, said analysts familiar with the bill.

The draft bill allows a military commander to deploy troops in an emergency situation without first consulting civilian officials. It also allows for the military commander to declare emergency law without presidential approval, says Ikrar Nusa Bakti, an analyst who was consulted by the military during the drafting. "This law would make it easy for the military to abuse it, they could move against the president if they wanted," Mr Ikrar said.

Under the present law, the military cannot deploy troops until it has a request from the governor of a province. The governor informs the home affairs minister that he has requested troops and the regional military commander informs military commander of the request.

The draft law may also undermine the reforms introduced after the downfall of president Suharto in 1999, aimed at making the military accountable to the civilian government rather than an equal power, observers say. "What they [military] still don't understand is that they are just one instrument of government. But they think the civilian government is beholden to them," one security analyst said.

But one politician argued that the proposed law might be the military's bid to bargain for a reduced role for the police. "This law is just a way of demanding something greater than they want, so eventually they can demand more power than police, greater budget and more equipment than the police," legislator Alvin Lie said. "Basically I think that the main cause of this law is the military's unhappiness with police revival. There's strong rivalry with the police since the police blamed the military for killing [Papuan independence leader] Theys Eluay," said Mr Lie. Seven elite soldiers are on trial for his murder.

Last week, army chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu suggested that the army be allowed to play a crucial role in Indonesia's defence, rather than be subject to a civilian government. "When people talk about military professionalism by asking us to return to barracks ... I don't think they understand what the Indonesian army is about," General Ryamizard said.

Arguing that the Indonesian army should not become a professional army like that in the United States because it was a "people's army", he hinted that the army should play a role in determining government policy for separatist conflicts in Aceh and Papua. "We cannot leave domestic issues tp just anybody ... because we have different conditions from the US. We are still dealing with disintegration problems," he said.

Djoko Susilo, a member of the parliament's defence affairs commission, said the draft had been shown to the justice and defence ministries, but the authors did not get the support they hoped.

They then showed the proposed law to friendly legislators. While the draft law has yet to be debated, some observers fear that because President Megawati Sukarnoputri depends heavily on the military to stay in power there will be little objection from her PDI-P party which holds the most seats in parliament.

Mr Ikrar said the president and the major political parties were not interested in reforming the military as they feared the armed forces would create "disturbances". In addition, the parliament showed little ability to implement reforms even if it wanted to, he said. "Only one in 10 members from the [parliamentary] defence affairs commission understands and is concerned with defence affairs," he said.

Any opposition to the bill will depend on whether the smaller opposition parties can rally enough support. Ms Megawati's PDI-P party, its coalition partner Golkar and the military hold 311 out of 496 seats. While the reform faction holds only 47 seats, it could get some support from the Muslim PPP Party, which has 58. A large number of dissenting legislators might force parliament to amend the draft. Indonesia's parliament prefers to reach a consensus on laws rather than vote on them, so a minority could win some concessions.