Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – In what has been hailed as a big step toward reforming the Indonesian Military (TNI), the House of Representatives and the government have agreed to allow civilian courts to try soldiers accused of criminal offenses.
But legal experts have criticized a disagreement over allowing the police to investigate TNI members for non-military crimes.
"Public courts will try accused TNI members, while public prosecutors and the military police will prosecute and investigate, respectively," Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono told The Jakarta Post here Tuesday.
The agreement was reached by all 10 factions on the House's special committee deliberating a bill to amend the 1997 law on military tribunals, said committee chairman Andreas Pareira. He added the committee had agreed on articles granting public prosecutors and courts the authority to prosecute and try soldiers for non-military crimes.
"The main stumbling block is over who should investigate the accused soldiers," he said. "If we want to keep with the current legal process and the general court system, then the police must do the investigating – but the government insists the military police still do it."
The government's proposal, opposed by only three parties, looks likely to be accepted by the House. Those dissenting included the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).
After three years of deliberation, the House special committee is now at the final stage of discussing the government-proposed bill on military courts, as it seeks to solidify civilian rule over the military.
Andreas, from the PDI-P, said if the factions failed to reach a compromise at the committee level over the sticking point of who would conduct the investigations, then the issue would be taken to a vote at a House plenary meeting early next year.
Observers say that with major parties such as Golkar, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) backing the military police's role, the voting should be won by them.
However, University of Indonesia constitutional law expert Irman Putra Sidin warned that if the new law allowed the military police a role in the criminal cases of soldiers, it would violate the 1945 Constitution.
"Article 28 (d) of the Constitution rules on equality before the law. What is the difference between a civilian thief and a military thief? Both are thieves and must be probed by the civilian police," he said.
He added the Constitutional Court would likely annul the article if the government and the House insisted on granting the military police the authority to probe accused soldiers.
Irman also expressed concern that the military police might protect high-ranking officers accused of crimes.
"I fear the military police will only recommend administrative punishment for crimes committed by high-ranking officers," he warned. "If so, then many crimes within the TNI, including corruption, could go unpunished."