Letter: BIN request

Thu, 11/19/2009 1:10 PM  |  Readers Forum

I refer to a news report titled "Sutanto spearheads BIN's economic focus" (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 18)

I think our state intelligence have everything needed with regard to our domestic or foreign operations. It is so obvious that some agents, attached themselves to political interests, will always request more power to serve their personal agendas, what our state intelligent community needs is to have better training and skills in their field, not just more authority which might lead to abuse and intimidation of the domestic political opposition.

The media has no bias on the current escalating phenomenon of KPK, AGO and the police. As the new National Intelligent Agency (BIN) chief asserted, what the media did was professional and democratic in the current state of affairs; they did expose the flaws, unprofessionalism and noncharacteristic behavior of our law enforcement agencies (the AGO and the police) that had led many to unjust imprisonment.

The power of the police we all ache to curtail, that leads to intimidation of individuals and groups by the police, is the very same power the new BIN chief, who was a former police chief, is asking them to grant him, so BIN can turn this country into a doomed and undemocratic nation and arrest whomever they feel does not support the government. The question is: Why should a former police chief be appointed BIN director, instead of a military man? Indonesia, the media and citizens has advanced enough to speak out and question some strategic appointments as a democratic right. The politicians should be careful embracing such a request.

The request of the BIN chief was made based on the current issue of the criminalization of the KPK by the two other agencies (the AGO and the National Police). As Sutanto, the new BIN chief, attached himself to politics and was once intoxicated with power as a police chief, he was familiar with the power he had before, to do whatever he wanted, which he hasn't got now.

The BIN has enough authority to operate within the realm of law now, no additional powers should be granted to them, if we do, they will abuse it and secretly arrest media journalists, citizens, political opponents and critics, claiming they threaten the peace of the state.

Ifa
Jakarta

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