Why Indonesia Needs Military Justice Reform

In light of the promotions of several officers convicted of involvement in past crimes being promoted to higher positions, the author of this article is calling for reform of the military justice system. Indonesia, the author points out, is a country where military officers are tried based on their rank and status rather than on the crimes they have committed. Several officers were indeed found guilty of forced disappearances and killings of pro-democracy activists and pro-independence movement leaders. As such they were stripped of their positions and ranks, but somehow their names later found their ways onto promotion lists in the Defense Ministry, State Intelligence Agency and National Counterterrorism Agency regardless (see http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/05/why-military-justice-refor... ).

Currently, any and all crime carried out by a military member can be tried in a military court, thus escaping the civil justice system all together. Until this point in time the President has not attempted to amend laws concerning military justice. This article was written on the 71st anniversary of the Indonesian army by an Indonesian PhD student studying law in Wales.

Even while never having studied law or military law in depth, it is easy to see that if military officers are above the laws of their country, they will continue to abuse of their power and jeopardize human rights and human decency.

One last note is that Prabowo, who was the 2014 presidential candidate running against Jokowi and who lost by a relatively small margin, was an officer associated with Suharto’s regime and has a record of war crimes in East Timor.