Selasa, 10 Mei 2005

INDONESIA BADLY NEEDS TO ENACT INTTELLIGENCE LAW

SUMBER : The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 10/05/2005
A.M. Hendropriyono, Jakarta

The weekend's repeat terrorist attack on Bali comes at the worst possible moment for the resort island. Not only did the blasts claim human lives, but they will no doubt translate into a devastating reverse for Bali's tourism industry -- which had only recently clawed its way back to normalcy following the October 2002 bombing.
For me, this latest bout of terrorism offered an unwelcome sense of dj vu. As the chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) in 2002, I all too vividly recall the briefings on body counts from the first Bali bombings, which escalated by the hour. Sadly, most pundits believe that the same terrorists -- led by Noordin M. Top and Azhari bin Husin -- masterminded both campaigns, as well as all of the annual attacks in between.
Now, as then, government critics have been quick to point out the shortcomings of the country's intelligence bodies. They question, understandably, why the authorities have not been able to capture the country's top fugitives despite a manhunt of more than three years. And many critically compare the abilities of today's intelligence officers with the reputed efficiencies of the intelligence units during the New Order.
This comparison, I believe, is unfair. For one thing, the pre-1998 intelligence leaders and those of today are largely the same people. I, for example, was a director in the Armed Forces Intelligence Agency (then known by the acronym BIA) during the New Order, then became chief of BIN during the reform era. My successor and the current chief of BIN, Sjamsir Siregar, was a former BIA chief during the heyday of the Soeharto regime.
Why, then, did we seemingly have more success prior to 1998? An analogy is useful. The intelligence agencies, then and now are like an automobile. We might have the same car, but its performance can be radically different depending on the driver and the roads driven. The driver, in this case, would be the President, while the route driven is dictated by the legislature.
As the end user of intelligence, the President needs to clearly set out the goals and expectations for his or her intelligence agency. Just as important, the legislature has to pass an intelligence law that clearly lays out what is permissible conduct. I implored the government of Megawati Soekarnoputri and the legislature to pass such a law. I argued that it was necessary to protect both the citizenry at large and the members of the intelligence service.
But most of all, I wanted an intelligence law in order to enable BIN to detain suspects for limited periods. Such detentions would not be for judicial reasons -- the police already have that authority -- but rather for operational reasons. Example: Intelligence officers sometimes need the ability to discretely take aside members of radical organizations in an attempt to entice them into providing information from inside terrorist cells. Receiving intelligence in this manner, BIN could better anticipate terrorist acts before they took place, before a crime had been committed. Limitations to prevent abuses could and should be contained in the letter of the law.
Unfortunately, the passage of such a law did not come about during the Megawati presidency. I would hope that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) shows greater backbone in this regard.
For several reasons, SBY can ill afford to wait.
First, Indonesia's terrorists seem to be having success in replenishing their ranks, in part by sending trainees to the southern Philippines.
Second, there are hints that Indonesian militants are now seeking out jihad in the sectarian violence in southern Thailand. If true, there is the chance that the Indonesian government could repeat the same mistake it made in the late eighties, when it turned a blind eye to literally hundreds of militants that trained in Pakistan for the anti-Soviet jihad. Those Pakistani-trained extremists, of course, went on to populate the upper echelons of Jamaah Islamiyah.
And while I am not positing a link with the Bali bombings, there is general social dissent over the recent and massive fuel price hike. Besides some clumsy attempts at socializing their decision -- such as the rather amateurish mass SMS that went out over the weekend -- the government has not done enough to explain its reasoning for the increases. This is all the more urgent given recent hints, probably well founded, which suggest certain political interest groups are trying to exacerbate this discontent for their own personal agendas.
What can the SBY administration do about all this?
First, as a priority he needs to give teeth to his intelligence organizations in the form of an intelligence bill.
Second, on the eve of this year's Ramadhan fasting month, he needs to more firmly condemn these latest terrorist attacks for the aberration of Islam that they are. It is a sad fact that the top terrorist fugitives in this country have been able to stay ahead of the law because they are afforded sanctuary from a network of active sympathizers, especially on Java. The government needs to win over these sympathizers, or at least gain their neutrality. They need to do this through a grass-roots nationwide education campaign that holds up the religious tolerance for which Indonesia was once famous.
Third, the government needs to redouble efforts to work with foreign nations to rid the region of religious radicalism. Such cooperation, in turn, can dovetail with enhanced bilateral and multilateral efforts overcoming other transnational problems, such as the spread of avian influenza and haze from forest fires, to name a few.
All of these steps are a matter of urgency. The country can ill afford to wait around for the next annual terrorist strike. But more than that, except for our own 230 million citizens, we are now in a time when the 1997 regional economic contagion is a fading memory for most of ASEAN. Indeed, when Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong outlined a pragmatic four-fold vision for ASEAN's future at a recent leader's summit -- the centerpiece of which was an admonishment for members to look beyond national interests for the regional good -- Indonesia, sadly, looks like it alone could carry its crisis into a second decade.

The writer is former minister of transmigration and manpower, and former head of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).