Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The Army's top soldier says that the Indonesian Military (TNI) is "not confident" about a recent proposal to involve the TNI in domestic counterterrorism efforts.
"I must admit there have been hesitations among us. We do not want to be accused of abuses of power anymore, like in the past," Army chief Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo said during a meeting with reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Pramono referred to the TNI's violent repression of civilians at the hands of the New Order regime under former president Soeharto.
The TNI, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and the National Police agreed to give the military a role in domestic counterterrorism efforts during a coordination meeting led by the BNPT on Monday.
All 151 of the TNI's military district (Kodim) commanders and around 350 local police chiefs attended the meeting.
Pramono, who is the brother-in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said that the TNI would have to establish good coordination and communications with the National Police to curb potential overlapping authorities as it developed its counterterrorism role.
"Yesterday's coordinating meeting with the BNPT and the police was a good start. I hope the meeting can help us find the best method of communication to learn about each institution's role to avoid conflicts and curb hesitation among the TNI's members," Prabowo said.
At the meeting, the BNPT said that the TNI, with its vast network of territorial commands, was well-suited to the "early detection" of terrorism and in curbing local "religious radicals".
"TNI members have the ability to engage in effective social talks with communities, which will be helpful in building civilian power to fight radicalism and dissuade extreme individuals or groups," Pramono said.
He cited the example of the deadly explosion at an Islamic boarding school in Sonolo village in Bima regency, West Nusa Tenggara, two weeks ago, as an example of a preventable incident.
"How could such activities inside the school not be detected for so long? And yet, after the explosion, police officers were not allowed to enter the school," Pramono said when discussing the negative impact of poor relations between the National Police and the local community.
On potentially overlapping police and military authorities, Pramono said: "We will continue to intensify communication with our brothers in brown," referring to the National Police.
Al Araf, program director for the human rights NGO Imparsial, was critical of the proposal, saying that the decision to involve the TNI in domestic counterterrorism was "premature". He said the TNI might play a role only if terrorist attacks "became too massive and the police could no longer go it alone".
Citing the 2004 Indonesian Military Law, Al Araf said that only the President could authorize military operations during peacetime, "not the BNPT chief nor the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister."
Al Araf said that the military should not be involved with de-radicalization initiatives or community-level counterterrorism deterrence measures.
"The government should utilize the Religious Affairs and National Education Ministries as well as its apparatus down to the sub-district level to play that kind of roles. That will be more effective," he said.
Lawmaker Tubagus Hasanuddin of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) also criticized the TNI's potential involvement in counterterrorism.
"The BNPT should develop a concept for counterterrorism operations and explain the TNI's role in the operation. The President should then make a political decision to determine whether to involve the TNI in the operation or not," he said.