Hammam Izzuddin, Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) officially approves the Draft Law on the Amendment of Law Number 34 of 2004 concerning the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) Law revisions as a priority national legislation program (Prolegnas) 2025.

DPR Vice Chairman Adies Kadir said the parliamentary leaders had received a letter from President Prabowo Subianto with Number R12/Pres/02/2025 on February 13, 2025, to appoint a government representative to discuss the TNI Law

"Therefore, we request the approval of the plenary session today regarding the proposed inclusion of the Bill in the 2025 priority national legislation program, can it be approved?" Adies said in the Plenary Session of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) on Tuesday, February 18, 2025.

The Golkar Party politician requested the plenary session's approval for the discussion of the TNI Law to be delegated to the House of Representatives Commission I. "Can it be approved?" said Adies.

"Agreed," replied the attendees.

Prior to this, the Bill on the revision of Law Number 34 of 2004 became one of the Bill proposals by Commission I DPR to be included in the 2024-2029 prolegnas. The proposal from the commission, which oversees defense issues, was conveyed in a plenary meeting of the Legislative of DPR on Tuesday, November 12, 2024.

Member of Commission I of DPR, Tubagus Hasanuddin, ensured that the discussion of the TNI Bill would involve civilian society. The discussion would start from the early stages and be conducted openly.

Hasanuddin responded to concerns from various circles regarding the existence of articles suspected of being problematic in the revision of the TNI Law. One of the issues highlighted in the revision is the expansion of positions in non-military institutions that can be held by active soldiers.

"We will listen to civilian society and ask for their feedback. We must listen to the people, and only then convey it in the forum," said Hasanuddin on Thursday, November 13, 2024.

The plan of the DPR to revise the TNI Law had attracted attention as it was discussed nearing the end of the 2019-2024 DPR term. Level I discussions of the Bill could not be carried out because at that time, President Joko Widodo had not yet submitted the list of inventory of issues to the DPR.

Civil society has been opposing the discussion of the revision of several laws at the end of the 2019-2024 DPR term. One of them is the revision of the TNI Law.

The Civil Society Coalition for Security Sector Reform conveyed various problems in the revision of the law, from its drafting to problematic articles.

"The government tends to be hasty and neglect meaningful public participation, thus clearly violating the basic principles of democracy," said Andi Muhammad Rezaldy, a representative of the Civil Society Coalition for Security Sector Reform.

– Nandito Putra contributed to the writing of this article.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1976795/dpr-approves-tni-law-revisions-as-priority-legislation-program-202