Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Djoko Santoso says his institution plans to conduct a feasibility study into military participation in the 2014 general elections.
He said the TNI was mulling implementing a policy that would allow active soldiers to vote and run for political positions.
"There is still a long road out there about whether we want to take this option or not. I still have to discuss this matter with every military high official," Djoko told reporters Wednesday.
He said the military would also ask external parties to participate in the study by providing a second opinion regarding the proposal.
The Indonesian military has never been allowed to vote but under the New Order regime, they received an automatic allocation of 100 seats at the House of Representatives. In 2004, however, the Military/Police party at the House was dismissed.
In military guidelines, it is stipulated that soldiers have to stay "neutral" in politics.
Hermawan Sulistiyo of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) welcomed the idea of the military intention to participate at the upcoming elections, saying that participating at general elections should be considered a citizen's right.
"Even a convict is still given their political right. If the military is considered to be guilty of misconduct in the past, it should not prevent us from giving them their political rights," he said.
The executive director of the Institute of Defense Security and Peace Studies (ISDPS) Mufti Makarim concurred with Hermawan, saying that in many countries with an established democracy, such as the US, the military could exercise their political rights.
"In every general election, military officers from all ranks could cast their votes without having to worry about different political preferences with their superior officers," he said.
But then Mufti added that such a condition was still far from reality for Indonesia since the country was still learning to develop and improve its democracy. "We must prepare and then establish a solid democratic system first before we invite the military to participate," he said.
Al Araf, executive director of Imparsial, an NGO that often shares different standpoints with the military especially over human rights issues, said that he was not too happy about the proposal.
"The military political rights are prone to manipulation and abuse of power due to their strong background of hierarchy," he said.
For example, if a military leader asked his subordinates to cast their votes on the leader's favorite candidates then it would be most likely that the subordinates would obey their leader instead of risking their career by choosing other candidates, he said.
Hendardi of Setara Institute said that granting the military political access would be a political setback for this country. "We should wait at least another 30 years because we are still in the process of developing our democracy," he said.