Since its heyday during the New Order period, the TNI has gone from then-president Soeharto’s tool to stamp out dissidents among the masses, to an institution strictly focused on Indonesia's defense, thanks to the student-led protests that helped bring about the fall of Soeharto’s authoritarian regime.

But Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said that a number of the provisions proposed by the TNI would put civil supremacy in jeopardy.

Speaking on Sunday during a press briefing hosted by Imparsial, a member of the coalition of civil groups, Usman took issue with the proposed expansion of the TNI’s non-war military operations.

The current TNI Law outlines 14 types of military operations for non-war purposes that allow TNI participation, such as during armed rebel conflicts and when countering terrorism. But, the proposed amendment to the law seeks to expand it to 19 types of operations, including aiding the government in facing cyberattacks and stamping out illicit drug circulation in the country.

“[Expanding the number of non-war operations] from 14 to 19 is clearly one thing that is very wrong in the [proposed] revision of the TNI Law, since the TNI will once again be above the law,” Usman said, as quoted from a YouTube video posted by Imparsial.

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