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Prabowo’s new job potential threat to security reform

Jokowi wants Prabowo “to orchestrate” the work of collecting and production of intelligence information carried out by a wide range of institutions.

Yerica Lai (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, January 27, 2023

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Prabowo’s new job potential threat to security reform

P

resident Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has caused a stir for tapping Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, his erstwhile rival-turned-ally, to coordinate intelligence affairs, a move that analysts said contravened existing laws and could pose a setback for the country’s security reform.

Last week, Jokowi said he wanted Prabowo “to orchestrate” the work of collecting and the production of intelligence information carried out by a wide range of institutions, from the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), the intelligence departments of the military and the police to the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN). “So that we can get reliable information, which can help determine how policies are made,” the President said.

This quickly set off speculation that BIN would be placed under Prabowo’s watch but the minister clarified on Monday that he would only work as “a kind of coordinator” of the collection of intelligence information carried out by the relevant spy agencies, and “help [the President] judge the merit of the information”.

Dahnil Azhar Simanjuntak, spokesman for the minister, told The Jakarta Post that the information in question was only “defense intelligence information related to geopolitics and geostrategy, so that the government can make the right decisions related to global situations”.

There has yet to be any further information or plan released by Jokowi’s office. Jaleswari Pramodhawardani, the Executive Office of the President's undersecretary for politics, law, security and human rights affairs, did not respond to questions from the Post but referred to Prabowo’s Monday clarification.

Military analyst Stanislaus Riyanta said that “a more detailed explanation from the government regarding any changes in the orchestration of intelligence information" was needed to provide more clarity. Stanislaus presumed that the intelligence information in question could actually be “specifically related to defense, collected from various sources, which then would be analyzed to support decisionmaking at the Defense Ministry”.

While the exchange of information between intelligence agencies is a common practice given the wide spectrum of threats that are often intersecting, Stanislaus noted: “The process must still be in accordance with what has been mandated by the law, especially regarding the coordinating function carried out by BIN.”

Another military expert Anton Aliabbas warned that Jokowi’s proposal could “potentially disrupt the governance of the country’s security sector” as it contravenes the prevailing 2011 State Intelligence Law that stipulates BIN as the “coordinator of state intelligence administration”. This particular role of BIN was also reaffirmed in a 2013 Presidential Regulation on state intelligence coordination, which regulates BIN as a coordinator that integrates intelligence products and reports them to the President.

“This would set a precedent for transferring authority without having a legal instrument, and this could potentially cause a setback for our security reform. We no longer have defense and security sectors being merged as they were during the New Order era,” Anton said.

The President could summon the BIN chief or coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister instead to discuss improvements in managing intelligence products, Anton noted, adding that “giving additional tasks to the defense minister will only add to the complexities and [create] new problems in the governance of state intelligence”.

House Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs would have to see first whether the President’s remarks would be penned into an official decree or policy, said deputy chairman Utut Adianto of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

“We will have to check first the development on the ground – whether there was indeed a transfer of authority from one ministry or state body to another,” Utut, who is also the head of the PDI-P faction at the House, said on Wednesday. “The President may have this thought [to express] that day but it still needs to be synchronized with related laws. Our intelligence already has its own body.”

Jokowi also took what many see as a swipe at BIN chief Budi Gunawan, a former police general whom many deem to be a close confidant of the PDI-P, when Jokowi asked Prabowo to inform him of the collection of intelligence information immediately, saying, “don’t tell me what happened when it [has] already happened”.

Utut shrugged off any suggestion that Jokowi’s intention to transfer the coordinator role to Prabowo was politically charged, saying: “Jokowi is a PDI-P cadre. There is no way he would do such a thing.”

 

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