The deadline for the Indonesian Military (TNI) to relinquish its businesses is only one year away. Yet discourse regarding all forms of military business that need to be taken over by the government have yet to be finalized, with proposals still on the table asking that military cooperatives be excluded from the list of targeted businesses.

The latest call for retaining military cooperatives was aired by TNI commander Gen. Djoko Santoso. Addressing the opening of a joint exercise of military cadets in Padang, West Sumatra, on Monday, the TNI chief said the cooperatives would not be business-oriented and would merely serve the soldiers' needs for basic commodities and simple money saving/lending services.

The idea of maintaining these cooperatives is noble indeed. But can anyone, including the TNI chief, guarantee that in the future the cooperatives will maintain their original objective – which is to serve the interests of the soldiers – and will not deviate from it or be manipulated for business purposes or for the interests of a very limited number of officers in the TNI leadership?

Global history, including Indonesia's, shows that obviously we cannot escape from such practices of deviation or manipulation.

One vivid example was the history of TNI's involvement in business itself. The idea of establishing military businesses was undoubtedly noble and patriotic as it was part of Indonesia's struggle to achieve independence from the Dutch.

The practice of smuggling Indonesia's raw agricultural products abroad and bartering them for arms and military equipment in the pre-independence era were, in a modern legal concept, illegal. But for a poor, occupied and still nonexistent country such as Indonesia, there was no other choice but to engage in such illegal activities.

The problem is that such illegal practices, in different forms and modes, continue until today – decades after Indonesia obtained its independence in 1945.

Another formidable example was the abused implementation of the military's dwi fungsi (dual role) concept. The concept, which was introduced in 1958 by the legendary Gen. Abdul Harris Nasution, was manipulated and misused by Soeharto and his New Order administration to maintain his grip on power for so long.

The above two examples should therefore be more than enough to illustrate how common our initially benevolent concepts or systems – especially those associated with power – are. Both also reveal that deviation from or manipulation of the initial concepts occurred due to a lack of checks-and-balances, transparency and accountability in the implementation of the concepts themselves.

The next question should then be how we citizens should respond to such a proposal (of allowing the military cooperatives to remain in existence).

It is basically not a difficult question to answer due to the nature of its good intentions. But upon observing our nation's poor examples of how good concepts or systems were manipulated, it then becomes a tough decision to say "yes" to the proposal.

The answer, however, would be "no" if we read through Law No. 34/2004 on the Indonesian Military, especially articles 49 and 50, which clearly stipulate that every TNI soldier deserves a proper income and a number of job-related allowances, including food and health allowances.

As all of the soldiers' salaries and allowances are covered by the state budget, it is therefore unreasonable to seek more "welfare" through military cooperatives.

Nonetheless, we may agree with the proposal, especially upon learning that the soldiers' current welfare is yet far from ideal. And it will be unwise for us to demand the soldiers to be professional while not providing them with a decent income.

Again, however, should we eventually allow the continued existence of military cooperatives, there must be a mechanism or system so as to prevent them from deviating from their original purpose.

And last but not least – the existence of these cooperatives must be on a temporary basis only. Once the soldiers' welfare reaches its ideal state, the only applicable, legal remuneration system should be the comprehensive one which is already stipulated in TNI's 2004 Law.

Otherwise, everything will go back to square one – (illegal) business as usual.