PDI-P's "Softening" Stance on TNI Bill, Is It Still a Balancing Force?

As the only political party outside the government, the political stance of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, particularly in parliament, does not reflect its opposition position. During discussions on several draft laws opposed by the public, PDI-P instead aligned itself with the government. Is it still possible for the public to hope that PDI-P will become a balancing force?

The softened stance of PDI-P was recently evident during the discussion of the TNI Bill. The PDI-P faction in Commission I of the DPR, along with seven other political party factions within the coalition supporting Prabowo Subianto's administration, agreed to bring the revision of the TNI Law to the DPR Plenary Session on Thursday (20/3/2025) to seek approval for its enactment into law.

In fact, a year earlier, precisely at the end of July 2024, the Chairperson of PDI-P, Megawati Soekarnoputri, had firmly stated her stance against the revision of the TNI Law. Megawati's rejection was based on the spirit of reform, which is founded on the pillars of a healthy democracy and a rule-of-law-based state, meritocracy, press freedom, strengthening democratic institutions, and the separation of TNI and Polri.

The separation of the TNI and Polri has been implemented as a mandate from the people through MPR Decree Number VI of 2000 and MPR Decree Number VII of 2000 regarding the roles of TNI and Polri. Megawati reminded that these state apparatuses must not enter the realm of practical politics and emphasized the importance of TNI and Polri maintaining professionalism in their respective fields.

Not limited to Megawati's rejection a year ago, opposition to the discussion of the TNI Bill has recently intensified, particularly from the public, especially civil society groups and student movements. The TNI Bill is feared to undermine civilian supremacy and revive the dual function of the TNI as practiced during the New Order era.

However, it appears that PDI-P has changed its stance. The PDI-P faction in the House of Representatives even agreed to the plan to pass the TNI Bill amidst massive opposition from a portion of the public.

Regarding this matter, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who is also the Chairperson of the Central Executive Board of PDI-P, Puan Maharani, spoke up. On Monday (17/3/2025), the daughter of Megawati stated that the party's support for the revision of the TNI Law was given because the regulatory revision had been jointly discussed in the House of Representatives. PDI-P participated actively as it aimed to oversee the progress of the discussion on the TNI Bill.

"(The rejection) was before we discussed it together," he said.

Puan also emphasized that only three articles were changed and there were no violations in the discussion. Of the three revised articles, Puan said, none of them indicated that they would restore the dual function of ABRI as in the New Order era as feared by the public since the government and the DPR discussed the TNI Bill.

However, if we look back, it was not only once during the discussion of the TNI Bill that the PDI-P's stance was in line with the government and the seven parliamentary political parties that were in the coalition supporting the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka government.

During the discussion of the revision of the Mineral and Coal Mining Law (Minerba), on February 18, for example, the PDI-P also agreed to ratify the revision along with other political party factions supporting the Prabowo government. Even though the material of the revision of the Minerba Law was also rejected by the public.

The process of revising the Minerba Law was opposed because it was considered too fast and was considered unreasonable and raised questions regarding the transparency and quality of the study of the revision.

Senior researcher from the Political Research Center of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Lili Romli, when contacted in Jakarta, Wednesday (19/3/2025), regretted the PDI-P's political stance in parliament. According to her, the PDI-P's stance was not critical. In fact, the party that won the 2024 Election is the only political party outside the government. The PDI-P's political stance disappointed the public, especially civil society.

The disappointment was mainly because the public hoped that PDI-P as the only political party outside the government would be a balancing force in parliament. In fact, with PDI-P's current political position, it is hoped that its attitude will be the same as in the era of the 6th President of the Republic of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. At that time, during SBY's two terms of government, PDI-P, which decided to be outside the government, was critical of government policies.

"But what is happening now is the opposite, not being critical or being a balancing force in parliament. Instead of being critical, now they are actually supporters in every discussion of the bill," Lili said.

Kompas notes, a number of policies that gave rise to polemics in society in the SBY era, such as the appointment of ExxonMobil as the lead operator of the Cepu Block and the increase in fuel prices, were fully responded to by the PDI-P as policies that were detrimental to the people. Against all policies that were considered contrary to the interests of the people, the PDI-P carried out "resistance".

If it decides to stay out of government, PDI-P will reap positive impacts, especially for the party's electability in the next election.

According to Lili, PDI-P's stance and political direction that are in line with the government could erode its electability. This could happen because the party no longer has a magnetic power for constituents, especially from critical groups and the middle class, who previously gave strong support to PDI-P.

"For critical groups, PDI-P is considered the guardian of the spirit of democracy. However, with PDI-P's current stance, of course they can no longer support it," Lili said.

Political Science Lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, A Bakir Ihsan, sees the current attitude of the PDI-P because the party has never explicitly stated that it is an "opposition" to the Prabowo government. The PDI-P's attitude tends to be more pragmatic, not explicitly stating that it is outside the government.

In fact, if it decides to be outside the government, PDI-P will reap positive impacts, especially for the party's electability in the next election. This is reflected when PDI-P decided to become the "opposition" during SBY's administration.

After 10 years of opposing the SBY government (2004-2014), PDI-P emerged as the winner in the 2014 Election. The party with the bull's head symbol won 18.9 percent of the valid national votes, the most compared to other political parties participating in the 2014 Election. PDI-P even left the Democratic Party, the party that led SBY to become president for two terms. The party that won the 2019 Election only won 10.9 percent of the valid national votes, or dropped by more than half because in the 2014 Election it won 20.85 percent of the votes.

Not only that, Bakir continued, the legal case currently ensnaring PDI-P Secretary General Hasto Kristiyanto could also be one of the reasons for PDI-P cadres not to be too critical of Prabowo's government. However, considerations because of the legal case could also not be that significant in influencing PDI-P's overall political stance.

Similar to other political parties in Indonesia, according to Bakir, PDI-P also does not have a critical-ideological perspective. This can at least be seen from PDI-P's attitude which has recently become more accommodating.

So, will PDI-P remain present as a balancing force to the government?