Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Observers say a new intelligence bill must strictly detail the powers of spy agencies, as a way of checking their reach and authority.
An intelligence bill was recently submitted by the House of Representatives. After the administration responds to the bill, the two sides can begin deliberating the legislation.
At a discussion in Jakarta hosted Friday by Partnership, an organization seeking to bolster good governance, intelligence analysts agreed the country's various intelligence bodies had so far gone largely unregulated.
They said this had led to cases of overlapping responsibilities, and competition between intelligence units in the military, the police and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN). The lack of regulation, they said, has also helped politicize intelligence bodies.
"Intelligence units need supervision to avoid becoming self-tasking or politically driven units. And this calls for both internal supervision and externally from the government, the House of Representatives and the public," said University of Indonesia analyst Makmur Keliat.
Overlapping responsibilities and competition between intelligence units, he said, resulted from unclear divisions of tasks and authorities. The main function of the new intelligence law, he said, should be to bring order to the intelligence world to prevent strategic surprises with the potential to disrupt defense and stability.
Military analyst Andi Widjajanto said the law should provide clear divisions of power among intelligence units. "(Based) on the type of information it gathers or the end users, the law should make it clear (which unit does what) so that the units are well-regulated," he said.
Andi said that in addition to dividing powers, there was also a need to coordinate the various intelligence units. "This requires both capacity building at each unit as well as at the parliament, in terms of supervisory capacity building," he said.
According to a 2002 presidential instruction, intelligence units are coordinated by BIN. This only happened after the 2001 Bali bombings, when intelligence bodies were blamed for failing to detect and prevent the attack.
Last year, Home Minister M. Ma'ruf issued a decree that reinstated the powers of regional intelligence unit commands, which had been disbanded. This move was criticized by activists concerned by the implications for freedom of speech.
During Soeharto's 32-year New Order regime, which ended in 1998 with his resignation, intelligence units were used by Soeharto as a means to maintain power and stifle dissenting opinions.
In an earlier draft bill submitted by the BIN, requested the power to detain suspects for up to 30 days without charge. This proposal was quickly shot down by lawmakers.