Camelia Pasandaran & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Angered by some lawmakers' refusal to give the State Intelligence Agency powers to arrest terror suspects, Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Tuesday that the state should not be blamed if bombs blew up everywhere.
"When bombs are found everywhere because we cannot make arrests prior to the incident, don't blame us," Purnomo said at the President's Office.
Purnomo was commenting on a clause in a draft bill being debated in the House of Representatives that could give the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) the power to arrest suspected terrorists before they attack, as well as people suspected of espionage and subversion.
The proposed bill also contains a controversial article allowing BIN to wiretap phone conversations without a court order.
Some legislators have criticized the proposal, saying such powers could be abused.
Leaked US diplomatic cables recently alleged that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had used the intelligence agency to spy on rivals. The president has firmly rejected the allegations.
Purnomo said the public should not be overly concerned about the arrest powers, saying heavy punishments for officials who abused their authority could be written into the law.
Ramadhan Pohan, a member of House Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, agreed with Purnomo's suggestion.
"I agree with prevention. If we just follow a long bureaucratic procedure in handling any possible [attack], terrorists might have already run away and pushed the bomb trigger," he said.
The lawmaker from the president's Democratic Party said he had lived in the United States for six and a half years and was in the country during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, stressing that he understood the need for heightened security.
Ramadhan said his party, which had opposed the clause on pre-emptive arrests for fear it would allow human rights violations, was reconsidering the government's proposal. "It is called early prevention," he said.
He added that the proposed detention time of 24/7 – 24 hours a day for seven days – could be reduced to just three days.
But Tubagus Hasanuddin, from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the Criminal Code clearly stipulated that only law enforcers could make arrests. "So it's weird if the government keeps pushing us to accept the proposal," he said.
Rather than asking for such powers, Tubagus said, it would be better for the state to propose measures that would push BIN to improve intelligence gathering.
"Just imagine, the intelligence agency arrests someone without any warrant, without revealing their identity, without revealing the location of the detention center," the lawmaker said. "Even though it's only for 24/7, does anyone want it?"
Al Araf, the program director of rights group Imparsial, urged the House to drop the plan. "It will disturb our criminal justice system, which is prone to political manipulation and prone to rights violations," he said.
House Commission I held a closed-door meeting late on Tuesday, where it decided to request a state briefing on the pros and cons of the arrest clause.
"We will seek the best formulation to respond to the proposal, or the government must totally retract it," National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker M. Najib told reporters after the meeting.