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Police bill raises alarm over sweeping surveillance
Civil groups oppose a plan to give the police more authority in conducting surveillance, intelligence work.
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East Java Police personnel attend the 76th anniversary of the National Police on Jul. 5, 2022, in Surabaya, East Java. (Antara/Didik Suhartono)
H
uman rights groups and critics have demanded that the House of Representatives drop a plan to revise the 2002 Police Law that they say will give the police sweeping authority over cyberspace and in conducting surveillance and intelligence work.
Over the past few years, calls for police reform grew louder following reports of the police using excessive force and a number of scandals involving high-ranking officers from drug trafficking to bribery and a murder.
But the latest bill that will revise the police law, which is currently being discussed in the House, does not address a major underlying problem: how to make the police more accountable for their actions.
Civil groups said the bill would instead further increase the potential for abuse of power amid a shrinking civic space.
A draft of the bill amending the police law obtained by The Jakarta Post contains a provision that gives the police the power to “block and cut off access to cyberspace” in matters of national security or to prevent cybercrimes.
Wahyudi Djafar of think tank Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy for Society (Elsam) said the provision was too vague and potentially violated the freedom of expression and rights to information.
“The bill fails to explain what constitutes a threat to national security, which means that the police could have full discretion to make that call. It would pave the way for the police to silence critics," Wahyudi said on Friday.
