Antara & Nur Yasmin, Jakarta – About 6,000 members of the military and police were set to be deployed in Jakarta on Tuesday to secure the inauguration of the new national legislature, while 8,500 will be deployed for the presidential inauguration on Oct. 20.
"We are deploying more military and police personnel to guard against people who want to demonstrate and throw stones. We will prevent them from entering the national legislative complex," Chief Air Marshal Hadi Tjahjono, commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI), said on Monday.
He said the military would act firmly against anyone behaving in an anarchistic and unconstitutional manner.
"Anyone behaving in an anarchistic, unconstitutional or unpleasant manner, or who tries to sabotage the presidential and vice-presidential inaugurations, will face the TNI," Hadi said in Jakarta on Friday last week.
Separately on Monday, Chief Security Minister Wiranto advised demonstrators to stay on the right side of the law.
"Demonstrations are allowed under the Constitution. If it is done in compliance with the law, then members of the public have nothing to fear; it will also not disrupt people's daily activities," he said.
However, he added that the state's existence was threatened by radical, anarchistic and unconstitutional movements and that the police would act if demonstrations turned into riots.
"I advise everyone not to be anarchistic and allow themselves to be provoked. Anyone who tries to disrupt the inauguration ceremonies is defying the Constitution. We will take maximum security measures to safeguard the ceremonies," the minister said.
Wiranto previously said that the orchestrators of last week's violent rallies were seeking to prevent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and the new national legislature from being sworn in for a second term.
"We have enough evidence indicating that they wanted to occupy the House of Representatives and People's Consultative Assembly, to prevent the national legislature from doing its job, meaning that [the president] cannot be inaugurated," Wiranto said.