Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Three parties rejected a government proposal to grant intelligence officials power to wiretap and make arrests.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) factions said on Thursday that they would block a clause in the contentious intelligence bill that gave such powers to intelligence agents.
The parties also suggested that the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) head should be approved by the House to ensure that the body was run by professionals.
"The intelligence function is found at the BIN, Indonesian Military, Attorney General's Office, Justice and Human Rights Ministry and local administration. These institutions have no investigative authority," said Helmy Fauzi, a PDI-P legislator and member of the working committee preparing the bill.
PKS legislators Gamari Sutrisno and Effendy Choirie, who was recently dismissed from the National Awakening Party, said the proposal to grant intelligence operations the authority to arrest created an opening for human rights abuse, and the fact that all institutions had intelligence functions could be used for the ruling regime's political interests, as in the past.
Gamari and Helmy said their factions would propose special legislation on bugging authority to make sure that its implementation, which was against human rights, was justifiable and accountable.
"Wiretapping is against human rights, but it can be justified in exceptional cases. The core problem is not the bugging authority itself but how it is used," Helmy said.
He explained that wiretapping authority had to be linked not to certain institutions but with the intelligence function in field operations. "Therefore, only materials threatening national security can be intercepted and published publicly, and the interception must gain permission from the court."
Working committee chairman Mahfudz Siddiq said the bill would be brought to the special committee for further deliberation next week, and all hearings deliberating the bill with the government would be open to the public.
He also stressed the necessity of special wiretapping legislation to keep it accountable.
"The BIN and other state institutions having intelligence functions will be toothless if they have no authority to intercept [information], and its implementation in the field must be transparent and accountable to avoid any power abuse and to prevent institutions from being abused by the regime for [the regime's] interests," he said.
Intelligence analyst Wawan Purwanto appreciated the House's move to reform the intelligence function and make the BIN and other relevant institutions accountable in the bill and called on the House to speed up deliberation so the bill could be endorsed this year.
"The House should also encourage the BIN and other relevant institutions to pay more attention to foreign interventions threatening national security in all sectors. For instance, terrorist acts have involved locals, but their masterminds were abroad, and 74 laws have been passed on foreign financial coverage," he said.
If the bill has too many loopholes, it could be brought to the Constitutional Court for review or be reviewed by the House in years to come, he added.
The three factions were optimistic that the bill prepared by the House to replace the one submitted by the government in 2001 could be endorsed in December at the latest.