Voting Rights for Indonesian Armed Forces(TNI) Personnel: Yes, No or with Reservation? by Fitri Bintang Timur • After being shelved for so long, the issue of Indonesian military personnel’s voting rights resurfaced again. What is different is that now President SBY changed his posi­tion to support the returning of military voting rights which indicates changing gestures of the government. Due to TNI’s over-involvement in the country's history, it is unders­tandable that every tendency to re-involve them in non-military issues will be highly speculated and questioned. • For the side that support the plan, TNI voting rights are seen as part of citizen's rights that need to be given. It is also a way for the military to be involved in determining the country's future through democratic elections. Meanwhile the opposing side demands that the military's past crimes, especially on gross human rights violation, have to be solved first. Also the TNI territorial command has to be erased before the military can enjoy their voting rights. • Actually, Indonesia can give or not give the military their voting rights because both actions are still in the corridor of democracy. It depends more on the historical-political conditions behind the policy making process. The article also shares the practice of German military voting rights as a comparison and reference. The debate on giving back voting rights to the Indonesian military(TNI) is not new and has been raised several times in recent years, usually around national election time. Until now the response from civil society and from the government’s higher ranks has been a unified“no”. However, after twelve years of democratic transformation, some parts of society feel that the military mem­bers are ready to bear the same political rights as regular citizen. At the same time, there is still widespread doubt as to whether Indonesia is ready to give the right to vote to its soldiers while other crucial reform de­mands on military institutions have not been thoroughly fulfilled. This article will examine the outcome of TNI’s post-1998 reform in the context of granting military personnel the right to vote. This article will then map the stakeholders’ stances by analyzing the statements of rep­resentatives of the interest groups related to the issue. As a comparison for how military voting rights may be regulated, Germany’s policy towards members of its Army- the Bundeswehr- will be discussed. Finally, the unique historical role of the Indonesian Armed Forces will be discussed which will then allow for some conclusions as to whether TNI voting rights should be reinsti­tuted for the next elections. Chronology and Context After being shelved for so long, the issue of TNI personnel’s voting rights resurfaced again in 2010. The trigger was a statement by TNI Supreme Commander Djoko Santo­so in mid June 2010, which suggested that his institution would review the prospect of military personnel to be granted voting rights in a reversal of the taking away of such rights as part of Indonesia’s so called refor­masi process which began with the fall of Soeharto in 1998. Several days after Santo­so’s remarks, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated that he agrees for TNI members to vote in elections, both at the national and local levels. The President ar-