The Indonesian Parliament Bell, who says critics says it raises the past authoritarian past

On Thursday, the Indonesian parliament has passed a controversial reform of the law, which will allocate more civilian positions to military officers, challenge student protests and raises fears of freedoms erosion in the third largest democracy in the world.

Reviews were suggested by President Praboo Sobanto’s allies, a former, fearful general who served during the reign of Soharto. This step creates a possible confrontation between the government and critics, who warned for weeks that the amendments raise the authoritarian past in Indonesia.

Mr. Brabu won The collapse of the ground collapse Last year, with the support of his predecessor, Goku Widodo. He achieved his ascension to power and his human rights record of fears of the future of one more than others Life democracies. In the late 1990s, he left the army after he was found in charge of the kidnapping of political dissidents.

The reviews, which must be signed on the law by Mr. Prabu, clarify the way for more military officers to fill civil positions such as those in the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The president is already Expand In civil jobs, including in the pioneering school lunch program.

Boan Maharrani, Speaker of the lower parliament, who led the vote in a plenary session, said that the revised law will remain “based on democratic values ​​and principles, civil sovereignty, and human rights.” In a speech, Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said that the amendments are necessary because the army should turn “to face traditional and unconventional threats.”

The government said that the current law, issued in 2004, is old. It prevented the presence of the army in Parliament and officially ended the so -called “dual position” that allowed the armed forces to interfere in politics.

Rights activists accused the government of Mr. Prabu of the cracking of the amendments through appropriate consultation with civil society groups. On Thursday, before the bill was passed, dozens of students gathered in the gates of Parliament in Jakarta, carrying banners saying: “returning the soldiers to the barracks.”

“We are really entering a position in which the public and society are no longer controlled by official institutions,” said Titi Ingreen, the lecturer of the Constitutional Law at the University of Indonesia. “Power is central and authoritarian.”

As of Wednesday, a coalition of civil society groups collected 12000 signatures Protest by law.

In a statement, Mohamed Essenor, head of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, compared a non -governmental organization that provides free legal assistance to marginalized and marginalized societies, and political parties in Indonesia with “buffalo led by the nose, after the will of those in power.”

Mr. Mohamed said that the draft law only serves “the interests of military elites and civilian politicians who cannot or unwilling to adhere to the democratic rules of the game.”

Rin Hindri The reports contributed.