Nicholas Ryan Aditya, Danu Damarjati, Jakarta – The Civil Society Coalition for Security Sector Reform is urging President Prabowo Subianto and the House of Representatives (DPR) to immediately review Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 66/2025 on State Protection for Prosecutors. They consider that the regulation is not subject to proper norms and legal order.
"We consider the issuance of Perpres 66/2025 to not be urgent and unnecessary. Even though the President has the authority to form a presidential decree, the formation of a Perpres must still be placed in the correct system of legislative formulation", said Coalition representative Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) Director Ardi Manto Adiputra in a statement on Friday May 23.
"Therefore, it is appropriate that the formation of Perpres 66/2025 which is not subject to the correct norms and legal order be re-evaluated and reviewed again by the president and the DPR", he added.
The legal basis for the presidential decree on the protection of prosecutors is considered not to refer to the TNI (Indonesian Military) Law or the Polri (Indonesian Police) Law, even though the presidential decree regulates the involvement of both institutions in the protection of state prosecutors' offices.
They also said that the substance of the presidential decree was not in accordance with the provisions under Article 7 of the TNI Law on Military Operations Other than War (OMSP).
"Bearing in mind that the provisions of Article 7 of the TNI Law limit OMSP to 16 types, while protecting the duties and functions of the prosecutor's office is not included in the 16 types of OMSP", explained Adiputra.
The coalition also warned that a similar pattern occurred in the appointment of Lieutenant Colonel Teddy Indra Wijaya as Cabinet Secretary in 2024, which initially violated the rules but was later legalised through revisions to a presidential decree.
Aside from not being urgent and unnecessary, the Coalition believes that Perpres 66 opens up space for the return of the military's dual socio-political function (dwi-fungsi) in the civilian sphere.
"Perpres 66/2025 brings the military deep into the civilian realm, namely the prosecutor's office. Whereas the prosecutor's office is a law enforcement agency that carries out the authority to prosecute and other authorities based on legislation, while the TNI is firmly and clearly a tool of state defence as regulated under the Constitution", said Adiputra.
Furthermore, the coalition believes that there was no real threat that justified the move. According to Adiputra, the president could have actually ordered the Attorney General to strengthen internal security or involve the police without having to issue a new presidential regulation.
"Up until now, there has been no real threat to national security related to the situation at prosecutors' offices that requires the president to issue a presidential regulation", he said.
"The prosecutors' offices are still in a normal condition in handling existing legal cases and there is no military threat that requires the president or the TNI commander to deploy the military (TNI) to prosecutors' offices", he added.
The Civil Society Coalition for Security Sector Reform is made up of a number of social organisations such as Imparsial, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Amnesty International Indonesia (AII), the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta), the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the Jakarta Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Koalisi Sipil Desak Prabowo-DPR Tinjau Ulang Perpres Perlindungan Jaksa".]