Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesia's plans to beef up its intelligence network by reviving its regional intelligence posts throughout the country, has led to some questioning about whether the body was becoming too powerful.

The state intelligence agency (BIN), under fire for failing to detect terror threats in the past, plans to place more people at various posts throughout the region.

BIN spokesman Muchyar Yara told The Straits Times: "We had regional posts before, but only 50 per cent of the provinces are covered due to financial and human resource difficulties. We are now proposing an increase in budgets and recruitments to fill in the posts in regions that are still uncovered."

He added that BIN would now take charge of the Bakorinda units in the region that was previously with the military. During President Suharto's era, intelligence gathering at the regional level was conducted by the Regional Coordinating Body for Intelligence or Bakorinda. The agency, reviled for its interrogation and detention of Suharto's opponents, lost its power after the Indonesian leader's fall in 1998.

In addition to filling up the posts, Mr Muchyar said BIN was also preparing a new system to improve coordination between all the government's intelligence units.

Under the Intelligence Community Forum, that begins next year, BIN would act as the coordinator of the intelligence divisions of the Indonesian Military, National Police, Immigration Office, Attorney General's office and Customs, he said.

The planned moves are aimed at coordinating intelligence gathering outside the capital to anticipate threats to domestic security. But the plan has triggered fears of the return of abuses, rampant during the Suharto government.

Human rights activists Bambang Widjoyanto told The Straits Times: "We do need a good intelligence system but we must make sure that the function of the intelligence agency would not be expanded to executing policies as in the past that would certainly give rise to human rights abuse. The problem is that in Indonesia, situations like this are often used to expand the power of certain institutions without being accompanied by a mechanism of accountability."

Said military observer J. Kristiadi: "The government should first issue the Intelligence Law to spell out BIN's scope of work and limitation."

BIN's plans received some measure of support within Parliament when it was first revealed, but some legislators from the Muslim factions expressed fears that Muslim figures would be targeted.

BIN has been under a lot of pressure after the Bali blast last month that killed nearly 200 people. Many people blamed it for failing to anticipate such a massive attack.

But many also blamed the ineffectiveness of intelligence gathering to inter-department rivalry as the police, military and BIN rarely share the intelligence data that they have gathered, resulting in uncoordinated policies.

Said Mr. Bantarto Bandoro of the Centre for Strategic International Studies: "Terror groups have made use of the weakness of our intelligence system, including its lack of coordination – and the Bali blast should serve as a wake up call to our intelligence community to shape up and work together."