TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A group of University of Indonesia (UI) students plans to challenge the revision of Law No. 34 of 2004 on the Indonesian National Armed Forces or TNI Law, which was recently passed by the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) in a plenary session on Thursday, March 20, 2025.  

Seven law students from the University of Indonesia's Faculty of Law will file a judicial review of the revised law at the Constitutional Court on March 21, 2025, at 10:00 AM WIB (Western Indonesia Time).

The lead petitioner, Abu Rizal Biladina, stated that the lawsuit was submitted due to concerns that the legislative process violated constitutional principles.

He explained that they were seeking a formal review of the TNI Law because its formation disregarded existing regulations, as it was not included in the National Legislative Program (Prolegnas), and lacked meaningful public participation.  

Although the revised TNI Law has been passed by the DPR, it has not yet been enacted or signed by President Prabowo Subianto.

Rizal acknowledged that there are two legal perspectives: one arguing that a law can be challenged immediately after being passed, while the other asserts that it can only be contested after it has been enacted.  

The Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) has also highlighted several irregularities in the drafting process of the TNI Law revision.

PSHK researcher Bugivia Maharani argued that the legislative process violated procedural requirements and that the bill should not have been designated as a priority for 2025

The 2025 National Legislative Program, which lists priority bills, was ratified through DPR Decree No. 64/DPR RI/I/2024-2025 on November 19, 2025. However, Maharani pointed out that the revised TNI Law was not listed among the priority bills in the accompanying documents.  

She identified several irregularities, including the fact that the decision to include the TNI Law revision in Prolegnas was not part of the official plenary session agenda.

During the session, Deputy Speaker Adies Kadir unexpectedly requested approval from attending DPR members to add the bill to the 2025 Prolegnas before proceeding with other scheduled matters.

According to Maharani, the House’s rules of procedure stipulate that any changes to the plenary agenda must be submitted to the Steering Committee at least two days in advance. However, this requirement was ignored, as the agenda change was never officially announced at the start of the session.  

Another issue was that the revision of the TNI Law was included in Prolegnas based on Presidential Letter No. R12/Pres/02/2025, dated February 13, 2025. Maharani argued that legislative priorities should be determined by the Legislative Body, not through a presidential directive.

She also questioned the existence of the presidential letter, which merely appointed government representatives to discuss the revision.

At the time, the DPR had not yet formally decided to deliberate the bill, and no official draft had been submitted to the president.

She stated that such a letter should only be issued after the DPR has formally decided to discuss a bill and provided the official draft and academic paper.  

Hammam Izzuddin contributed to the writing of this article.

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