Police insist budget cuts won’t affect performance RI faces serious security challenge from returning IS fighters, mass rallies.
a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/06/14/kpu-starts-preparations-of-simultaneous-regional-elections.html" target="_blank">Simultaneous regional elections in major provinces and the rising threat of terrorism have not moved policymakers into heightening security measures next year as the proposed state budget cuts back on spending designed to keep the public safe.
The cut has raised concerns over the priorities in the budget as the country will need to deploy extra security personnel to safeguard the VVIPs during next year’s annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Bali, in addition to the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra.
The events will be held at a time when Indonesia is currently overwhelmed by the incoming flow of returning Islamic State (IS) movement jihadists from Syria, Iraq and now the Philippines.
In his proposed budget for next year, delivered to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo apparently reduced the allocation for security by 23 percent to Rp 113 trillion (US$15 billion).
Under the allocation, the budget for the National Police has been severely lowered by 24 percent to Rp 77.8 trillion.
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According to the 2018 budget proposal, the decline in the security allocation is attributable to the decision to allocate more of the money for security this year.
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