Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesia's powerful military will bow out of politics for good after losing its reserved seats in the country's top legislative body, armed forces chief General Endriartono Sutarto said yesterday.
He told the National Assembly (MPR): "For the future, we will really leave the arena of practical politics and we will focus ourselves especially on the matter of defence."
The 700-strong MPR concluded its four-day annual meeting last night. The body comprises Members of Parliament as well as non-elected representatives from the military, police and various non-political groups.
Under a series of constitutional changes agreed upon in the 1999 reforms agenda, the military and police will lose their 38 seats in the MPR, and so will all the other non-elected MPR members.
On October 1, a 550-strong Parliament and a new 128-strong Senate body will be inaugurated after the election of lawmakers in April. This year, Indonesians elected their president directly for the first time after decades of leaving the task to the MPR.
Indonesia's powerful military began to take a diminishing role after the resignation of president Suharto in 1998, following widespread opposition against his three-decade rule.
Under Mr Suharto, who is himself a former general, it helped crush his opponents and secure his victory in every five-yearly election for 32 years.
Immediately after his downfall, the military faced mounting calls to withdraw from politics. Some of its power was gradually taken away, including its hold on domestic security, which was handed over to the police.
Although it will not be represented in Parliament any longer, many observers believed it will still play a significant role in politics because of its wide-reaching influence across the archipelago.
In the first round of the presidential election in July, three of the 10 presidential and vice-presidential candidates had a military background, including former military chief Wiranto. This raised fears that the armed forces were staging a political comeback.
Also of some concern was a controversial Bill which had been criticised for leaving the door wide open for the military to become involved in politics.
But Gen Sutarto has repeatedly said he was committed to keeping the military out of politics. He had earlier pledged to keep the military neutral in elections this year, and ordered them not to vote in the parliamentary and presidential polls.
He told reporters that soldiers would vote in 2009 only if the political situation is conducive. "If the political life is already good, democratic life is proceeding healthily and there are no political forces trying to persuade the armed forces to support them, then soldiers will have their voting rights and can vote in 2009," the general said.