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Indonesia unprepared for war on drugs
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Final hours – A convoy of 17 ambulances is seen entering the Nusakambangan prison island on Thursday morning. Fourteen of the total ambulances carried coffins reportedly prepared to carry bodies of 14 death-row drug inmates, set to be executed on early Friday. (JP/Agus Maryono)
S
ince President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo declared a “drug state of emergency” and all-out war on illicit substances last year, little has been done on the front line, except for the controversial executions of drug offenders.
Government officials and law enforcers have quietly admitted that the war on drugs has a long way to go before it achieves the desired results, that is, a significant drop in narcotic-related crimes and a more effective rehabilitation program.
Budi Waseso, the head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), the state institution touted as the backbone in the war on drugs, puts daily drug-related deaths at 50 and the number of abusers at about 5 million — a figure that has not changed for many, many years. Last week, it warned that the figure may shoot up in coming years unless the problem is properly addressed.
He told visiting members of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) at his office in March that the agency, which is answerable to the President, had identified 60 active illicit drug networks in the country. The lucrative illegal business is estimated to cause Rp 63 trillion (US$4.8 billion) in state losses every year, mostly in the form of rehabilitation and medical treatment costs.
Law enforcers have blamed the slow progress in the war on drugs on inadequate human resources in law enforcement agencies. The BNN claims it has only 4,600 personnel, far below the ideal of 74,000. The agency is struggling with a shortage not only in staff but also in technology, rehabilitation facilities and funding while new types of drugs keep pouring into the country.
This is not to mention the chronically poor coordination among relevant state institutions, from the Social Affairs Ministry, the BNN and the National Police to the judiciary. The lack of standard procedures at the 578 rehab centers, 18 of which are state-run, is also another headache the government is trying to address.
Last year, the government missed its target of rehabilitating 100,000 drug abusers. Due to various constraints, it could accommodate only 42,000 people with various degrees of success. Interestingly, Jokowi has asked the BNN to raise the target to 200,000 this year.
