Members of House Commission I overseeing intelligence and defense affairs unanimously threw its support behind Budi, who is now serving as deputy National Police chief.

The commission came to its decision after an approximately three-hour assessment hearing to learn Budi’s vision and mission.

“Commission I decided that Budi Gunawan has the competence and is a qualified candidate to replace Sutiyoso as the head of BIN,” Commission I chairman Abdul Kharis Almasyhari said, reading out the statement after a closed-door hearing with Budi.

The commission will bring its conclusion to a House plenary meeting scheduled for Thursday when the House will indicate a formal endorsement before forwarding the results to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

Before the lawmakers questioned Budi in a closed-door hearing, Budi was given about one hour to present his vision for running the state’s spy body in an open session.

In his explanation, Budi pledged to develop professionalism, objectivity and integrity in the state’s intelligence agency. He added that he would aim to improve BIN to enable the institution to cope with the greater challenges faced by the global community.

“External threats that endanger national security are getting more complex, asymmetrical and without certain patterns. BIN should make an enhanced early detection system to prevent and tackle possible threats that can threaten national security,” Budi said.

He also touched on the political tensions in the South China Sea, drug trafficking, cyberwarfare, conflicts at border areas, terrorism financing and the escalating spread of radical ideologies as among the external threats awaiting the country.

Aside from improving early detection mechanisms and related equipment, Budi made assurances he would also work on improving the quality of human resources in BIN as well as other management and operational issues.

Budi, a three-star police general, is set to take over the leadership of BIN after months of uncertainty caused by an apparent political struggle between Jokowi and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri.

He is known as a close confidant of Megawati after having served as her adjutant during her tenure as president from 2001 until 2004.

Jokowi triggered a public outcry when he nominated Budi to be the National Police chief in January 2015. Three days later, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named Budi a graft suspect. Budi filed a pretrial motion against the KPK and the court controversially cleared him of the graft charges.

In a move to accommodate both the public and Megawati, Jokowi appointed Gen. Badrodin Haiti as police chief and picked Budi to be the deputy police chief.

Budi has remained involved in the political transactions between Jokowi and Megawati since then. After months of discussions, Jokowi finally submitted to Megawati’s demands and nominated him to be the next BIN chief.

As a police officer who would lead an institution associated with the military, analysts predicted that Budi would spend his first months after officially taking over BIN’s leadership from former military general Sutiyoso to consolidate his hold internally.

“But it will be a minor problem for Pak BG [Budi Gunawan] because of his years of leadership experience,” said political analyst Kusnanto Anggoro.

“The most important thing for him to consider, I think, is how to reorient BIN to be more responsive to global issues, such as the South China Sea dispute,” he said.

Separately, defense analyst Al Araf from Imparsial concurred. “Threats are becoming more complex now. Information technology is also becoming more complex. All of these need to be addressed with quality human resources.”

“In this era of globalization, high intelligence skill is required of intelligence agents. It’s not the time to use physical force any more and it’s the job of Pak BG to make BIN nurture more highly intelligent officers in order to address the more complex issues that the country is facing,” he emphasized. (fac)

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