T

he National Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) want more authority to launch preventive measures against suspected terrorists despite public concerns over potential human rights violations.

The police and the military said articles specifying their expanded authority should be included in the revision of the terrorism law being deliberated at the House of Representatives.

The police have called on lawmakers to immediately give them the authority to arrest terrorist suspects before they carry out acts of terrorism.

“Terrorism is an extraordinary crime, so we have to combat it with extraordinary measures,” National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said Monday.

Those who could be arrested under this preemptive measure include individuals who allegedly plan terrorist attacks, those proven to spread provocative hate speech and who perform military training, even if they only use air guns and make bombs.

Badrodin added the National Police would work with the Army, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) to monitor suspected people who have the potential to conduct terrorist acts. The police would play a leading role in this operation.

“No need to worry about human rights violations. Of course, we also have a control mechanism to handle it,” the police chief said, adding that security officers should not wait until the terrorists launch attacks and create more victims.

Badrodin made assurances that the police would not make arbitrary arrests, as the BIN would provide them with comprehensive and trusted data about the suspects.

Despite his pledges to avoid human rights violations, the public cannot forget what happened to terrorist suspect Siyono, who died in police custody, allegedly after being tortured by police officers.

An assessment by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), suggests that Siyono had indeed died because of alleged torture carried out by the Densus 88 counterterrorism squad.

Driven by the finding of the rights bodies, the House’s special committee working on the revision of the terrorism law proposed to establish a supervisory body that would oversee the work of the Densus 88 to ensure its transparency and accountability in dealing with terrorist suspects and managing their financial allocations, but the police corps was quick to reject the idea.

“We already have our own internal mechanism to monitor Densus 88,” Badrodin said.

Furthermore, Badrodin also wants the revised terrorism law to be a lex specialis (specialized law), meaning that the stipulations on how to deal with acts of terrorism acts would be based solely on that law.

The TNI’s chief for general affairs, Vice Adm. Didit Herdiawan, also emphasized the importance of giving stronger authority to the police to do preventive measures. “If the preventives measures fail, then we have to do repressive ones,” he said.

He also wants a stronger role for the TNI in the fight against terrorism, particularly by empowering its village supervisory non-commissioned officers (Babinsa) to directly approach civilians to do publicity to raise the public’s social awareness.

“But the Babinsa can’t walk alone. That’s why integrated coordination is important,” Didit added.

He also said it was important for members of society themselves to monitor their environment — not to distrust each other, but to be aware of security.

A member of the bill’s special committee, Syarifuddin Suding of the Hanura Party, said that the aspirations of both of the country’s security keepers would be given a lot of consideration during the bill’s deliberation.

However, he emphasized that human rights protection was an absolute thing that would also be taken into consideration.