August 5, 2025 | 04:05 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Army’s housing program risks collapsing, again. And once more, soldiers are the ones who pay the price.
THE dreams of tens of thousands of low-ranking Indonesian Army soldiers to have a home of their own could turn to dust. Although installments for housing are deducted from their salaries every month, they still have not received homes. This recurring problem shows that there has been no significant change in the management of soldiers’ housing savings funds.
The latest disarray over the procurement of soldiers’ housing began with an instruction from Gen. (ret) Dudung Abdurachman in August 2023 when he was Army Chief of Staff. It obliged soldiers recruited from 2021 to 2023 to buy homes from the Army’s Mandatory Housing Savings Management Agency (BP TWP). An investigation by a consortium of journalists grouped under IndonesiaLeaks revealed that these new soldiers were required to apply for a loan of approximately Rp200 million. If they refused, they were threatened with transfer to Papua.
Privates (tamtama) and non-commissioned officers (bintara) have to tighten their belts. The greater portion of their salaries, around Rp3.6 million, is deducted for installments. As a result, they only take home around Rp100,000-400,000.
Even though they live in barracks and receive free meals, soldiers will find it difficult to live on such a small remaining salary. The large portion of their salary deducted for installments is well above the reasonable limit of around 30 percent of total income.
This significantly large salary deduction could force soldiers to seek additional income. This aligns with what Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Agus Subiyanto admitted in March 2025 when he said that some soldiers still work as motorcycle taxi drivers or sell food and drinks within their units. It is truly ironic if military leaders are not properly managing these funds obtained from deductions.
Before obliging privates and non-commissioned officers to buy houses, Dudung Abdurachman ordered Rp586.5 billion of BP TWP funds to be released and paid to 13 housing project developers. He later said that this was done to complete previous projects that also had problems. But the fact, based on the investigation by the journalists consortium, is that many housing developments from dozens of developers have stalled again. The Army Inspectorate-General found that the disbursement of the funds did not comply with the regulations. There is a possibility that soldiers were forced to buy homes to cover the losses of the housing savings management agency.
Dudung’s successors have not yet managed to resolve this problem. The salaries of young soldiers are continually being deducted without any clarity on when they will receive their homes. This problem also highlights the failure in the management of the soldiers’ housing funds. These salary deductions have been repeatedly misused for personal gain. For example, in 2005, managing agency chief Col. Ngadimin was found guilty of embezzling Rp100 billion. This misappropriation involved a senior officer, Maj. Gen. Salim Mengga.
In 2023, a court also found soldiers housing fund chief Brig. Gen. Yus Adi Kamrullah guilty. He was imprisoned for 16 years for misappropriation of soldiers’ housing funds from 2013 to 2020. He was subsequently embroiled in another case, also involving embezzlement of soldiers’ housing funds, before being acquitted following his death.
There have been changes of military leadership, but the same problems continue to occur. Soldiers whose salaries are deducted every month continue to be the victims. Promises to improve their well-being keep being made, but the opposite happens. The government of President Prabowo Subianto must break this chain of crimes carried out against these low-ranking soldiers.
In the disarray over the housing fund management that started in the era of Dudung, the President could order a transparent legal process. This could involve the mechanism of connectivity, meaning a joint public and military investigation. The methods used in these latest problems are similar to previous instances, namely the paying out of substantial amounts from the management agency to private organizations for land procurement for housing. In order to speed up the investigation, Prabowo could dismiss Dudung from his position as Special Presidential Adviser for National Defense.
Having previously been a senior military officer and subsequently Minister of Defense, Prabowo has enough knowledge about the welfare of junior officers, including their housing. He has a greater responsibility to end the misappropriation of soldiers’ housing funds.
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