Indonesia’s Parliament on Thursday unanimously passed a controversial overhaul of a law that will allocate more civilian posts for military officers, defying student protests and raising fears of the erosion of freedoms in the world’s third-largest democracy.
The revisions were proposed by allies of President Prabowo Subianto, a feared former general who served under the dictator Suharto. The move sets up a potential showdown between the government and critics, who have warned for weeks that the amendments evoke Indonesia’s authoritarian past.
Mr. Prabowo won a landslide election victory last year with the backing of his predecessor, Joko Widodo. His ascent to power and his human rights record revived fears of the future of one of the world’s most vibrant democracies. In the late 1990s, he was discharged from the army after he was found responsible for the kidnapping of political dissidents.
The revisions, which have to be signed into law by Mr. Prabowo, clear the way for more military officers to fill civilian positions such as those in the attorney general’s office. The president has already expanded the role of the military in civilian functions, including in his flagship school lunch program.
Puan Maharani, the speaker of the lower house who led the vote in a plenary session, said the revised law would remain “grounded in democratic values and principles, civilian supremacy, human rights.” In a speech, Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said the amendments were necessary because the army has to transform “to face conventional and nonconventional threats.”
The government has said the current law, which was passed in 2004, is outdated. It barred the military’s presence in Parliament and formally ended the so-called “dual function” practice that had allowed the armed forces to interfere in politics.
Rights activists have accused Mr. Prabowo’s government of ramming the amendments through without proper consultation with civil society groups. On Thursday, before the bill was passed, dozens of students gathered at the gates of Parliament in Jakarta, holding banners that said: “Return soldiers to the barracks.”
“We are truly entering a situation where the public and society no longer have control over formal institutions,” said Titi Anggraini, a lecturer of constitutional law at University of Indonesia. “Power is centralized and authoritarian.”
As of Wednesday, a coalition of civil society groups had collected 12,000 signatures protesting the law.
In a statement, Muhamad Isnur, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, an N.G.O. that provides free legal assistance to marginalized and underprivileged communities, compared Indonesia’s political parties to “buffaloes led by the nose, following the will of those in power.”
The bill, Mr. Muhamad said, merely serves “the interests of military elites and civilian politicians who are either unable or unwilling to adhere to democratic rules of the game.”
Rin Hindryati contributed reporting.
