T

he lack of recognition from peer spy bodies has led the Defense Ministry (MoD) to seek “political back-up” directly from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo through the establishment of a defense intelligence agency.

The agency itself will not be a totally new division in the ministry because it currently has a National Strategic Agency (Bainstranas), the job of which is also to formulate strategies to counter threats to the country.

Bainstranas head Maj. Gen. Paryanto told a media briefing on Thursday that his division needed an official change of name in order to justify its role in intelligence activities.

“The name defines the function,” Paryanto said. “Attaching ‘intelligence’ to the name will accelerate our work in intelligence.”

He, however, insisted that nothing would change in the structure, or in resources, including financial resources.

“We will continue to use the allocation from the ministry’s budget,” Paryanto said.

He said the defense intelligence body was expected to be the center for intelligence information analysis. Thus the Defense Ministry will be the coordinator of all intelligence bodies in the country, including the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the military’s intelligence body (BAIS).

Paryanto’s explanation reiterated that of Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu who earlier expressed the difficulty his office had in obtaining information from BAIS in particular.

The proposal to set up a defense intelligence organization quickly raised questions from intelligence practitioners as well as from observers.

“The law doesn’t prohibit any ministry from establishing its own intelligence body, but the law should first be revised,” BIN chief Sutiyoso said.

Currently, Law No. 17/2011 on the National Intelligence Agency stipulates that defense intelligence is in the jurisdiction of the Strategic Intelligence Agency under the TNI, while BIN coordinates all intelligence agencies across the country.

Sutiyoso said the military would need a larger budget and more staff if it insisted on establishing a new intelligence body, even as the country was already burdened economically and had to concentrate on its infrastructure development agenda.

“Actually, if the existing body can cover what the ministry’s needs, we just need to enhance coordination without having to establish a new one,” Sutiyoso said.

The establishment of the defense intelligence body will require a presidential decree by Jokowi. The President may also need input from the House of Representatives.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker TB Hasanuddin said there should be a thorough review of two regulations, Law No. 34/2004 on the TNI and Law No. 3/2002 on defense. Furthermore, he said the ministry could not establish an organization only based on a presidential decree or a presidential regulation.

“Actually, if they need some information, they can just ask for it from the BAIS,” said the deputy chairman of House’s Commission I overseeing communications, foreign affairs and defense.

On the other hand, the NasDem Party supports the idea. NasDem lawmaker Prananda Surya Paloh of Commission I said that the proposal was better than establishing regional defense ministry offices like the ministry has planned.