President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Thursday summoned retired Army general and former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso, who the House of Representatives has recently approved as the new National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief, to the State Palace to give him instructions
resident Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Thursday summoned retired Army general and former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso, who the House of Representatives has recently approved as the new National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief, to the State Palace to give him instructions.
Sutiyoso said President Jokowi instructed him to improve BIN's work performance, including its organizational structure, quality of personnel and intelligence infrastructure and equipment.
"Currently, we need roughly 5,000 personnel while we have only 1,975 personnel. Therefore, we will recruit 1,000 persons of various skills and backgrounds," Sutiyoso said after the meeting.
He said more personnel needed to be recruited to anticipate the upcoming simultaneous local elections.
Sutiyoso added that he would improve the quality of the agency's human resources by providing them with quality higher education.
The former Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) member said BIN needed to be able to answer to the challenges of the world's modern intelligence technology.
"If we don't have super sophisticated equipment, we will be violated all the time [...] We want to protect the communication channels of the country's high-ranking officials," he added.
According to Sutiyoso, the President also expressed his concerns on terrorism, particularly following the recent growing alerts on possible terror attacks in Turkey.
Sutiyoso, a former chairman of the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), secured approval for his candidacy from all 10 political parties at the House on Tuesday afternoon.
He is now waiting for his official inauguration as the new BIN chief, replacing the agency's outgoing chief, Marciano Norman.
Sutiyoso's candidacy received a nod from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), whose headquarters in Jakarta were destroyed in a 1996 military raid that was reportedly ordered by Sutiyoso, who was the Jakarta Military District Command commander at the time. Five people died and hundreds were injured in the incident. (ebf)(++++)
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