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A Rally of #TolakRUUTNI | Source: DetikNews

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What is #TolakRUUTNI Movement?

On March 20, 2025, Indonesia’s Parliament passed a controversial law allowing military officers to hold civilian roles in ministries and government bodies (Nurani, 2025). This law triggered public anger and unrest, as shown by a protest movement which internet users started on X, titled #TolakRUUTNI (Reject the Amendment to the TNI Law)

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The draft of the RUU TNI, allegedly (now has been ratified), contains several clauses that could potentially lead to problems:

Military personnel could retire later, enabling them to retain their positions longer.

The military would " support " policies and administrative functions, even in sectors unrelated to defense. This implies that military involvement could extend into civilian affairs beyond its usual jurisdiction.

Active military personnel could occupy positions in up to 14 civilian institutions, including the Supreme Court.
(Active military personnel can only fill positions in 10 defence-related ministries/institutions without retiring from their military roles.)

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Arts as a Form of Resistance

Reacting to repressive power, including from the state, artists sometimes create art to express negative sentiment or disagreement (Groys, 2008, p. 122). This also happened on X. They reacted to this sense of injustice by creating graphic arts.

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How do the graphic artworks shared under #TolakRUUTNI on X visually construct meanings of resistance toward state power?

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Semiotic analysis is a method of research that aims to determine the meaning of the sign that appears. Semiotics is commonly used in research to observe visual texts.

Semiotics reveals the meaning of related things outside the text because even though the most dominant sign is the text, many signs require meaning and do not come from texts, such as street signs, hairstyles, carvings on walls, and so on, which contain many meanings (O’Shaughnessy, 2012, p. 123).

The art image represented under the hashtag #TolakRUUTNI must have meaning since it contains several parts that only the people who protest or some oppositional communities would understand.

The researcher has determined 18 artworks that will be examined in the next chapter. The number of significant interactions with the artwork posted also contributes to why these artworks are chosen.

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The researcher has determined 18 artworks related to the #TolakRUUTNI movements on X. The Researcher finds that through these graphic arts, the art's authors are implicating meanings of resistance to the power and fighting back against the regime, which does not seem to be in their favour

They included objects, colours, and key messages related to the political condition and terror and integrated daily content into the graphic art listed. The authors do not create the arts just to announce or give a huge text about their stance but also provide a lot of context in producing the media.

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26K Retweet, 89K Likes, 1,4Million Views

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https://t.co/8qGo5pY1Js pic.twitter.com/wj4JxD5IS9
— Choirul Annam (@Choirulanm1) March 21, 2025

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11K Retweet, 25K Likes, 414K Views

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god bless the people of indonesia🙏 https://t.co/7SRmR15T8s

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god bless the people of indonesia🙏 https://t.co/7SRmR15T8s

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god bless the people of indonesia🙏 pic.twitter.com/7SRmR15T8s
— dv • cfxx O-54 (@davifadlannn) March 28, 2025

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god bless the people of indonesia🙏 https://t.co/7SRmR15T8s

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god bless the people of indonesia🙏 https://t.co/7SRmR15T8s

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god bless the people of indonesia🙏 https://t.co/7SRmR15T8s

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Overall, graphic arts created by X users with some designated requirements show a tendency to develop resistance in graphic media. They include a lot of context that might require understanding each object in the image. This kind of resistance shows the public that in the middle of repressive of power from the state, it inspires people to create some of the arts that showing their resistance.

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Groys, B. (2008). Art Power. MIT Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=3338770

O’Shaughnessy, M. (2012). Media and Society (J. M. Stadler, Ed.; 5th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Yunus, S. (2025, April 17). UU TNI Sudah Diteken Prabowo, Ini Poin-poin Penting Perubahannya | tempo.co. Tempo. https://www.tempo.co/politik/uu-tni-sudah-diteken-prabowo-ini-poin-poin-penting-perubahannya-1232437