Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – The government will form a new team of legal advisors to assist law enforcers in maintaining national security after last month's elections, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto said on Tuesday.
The informal team will be tasked with assisting the Supreme Court, the National Police and the Attorney General Office, he said.
The minister said he has been meeting with legal experts and academics to get their perspectives on national security laws.
"It will not be a national agency, and won't replace any existing institution. It's a team of [legal] experts to help my ministry detect and analyze possible violations of our national security laws," Wiranto said in a statement.
For example, the team will help determine if recent provocative statements by prominent political figures – including former Army generals – can be considered as subversive.
"Most legal experts agree with the government's stance that we cannot let people throw insults and slander against the president or the government," Wiranto said.
"We will punish anyone who can be proven guilty of committing subversive acts, including former generals. We will take firm action against anyone who violates the law," he said.
It is thought the ministry's move was made in response to political pressures from presidential nominee Prabowo Subianto and his supporters who still refuse to concede defeat in the presidential election, despite quick count results saying otherwise.
Supporters of Prabowo and his running mate Sandiaga Uno plan to hold a massive street protest in Jakarta on Thursday to call on the Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) and General Elections Commission (KPU) to disqualify their rivals, incumbent president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and his running mate Ma'ruf Amin, from the presidential race.
The Prabowo camp has on various occasions accused the KPU of taking Jokowi's side and called on their supporters to not trust quick-count data compiled by dozens of pollsters registered with the commission.
The quick counts, which were accurate in predicting the result of past elections, consistently showed that Jokowi had won the election by between 54 percent and 56 percent of the vote.