Jakarta – The Civil Society Coalition has criticised a plan to give more authority to law enforcement institutions such as the National Police (Polri) and the Prosecutors Office, as well as the Indonesian Military (TNI), through three draft laws (RUU).
The Coalition is made up of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial), the Institute for Public Research and Advocacy (Elsam), the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Centra Initiative, the Indonesian Women's Coalition (KPI), the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy and the Populist National Association of Student Executive Councils (BEM SI Kerakyatan).
PBHI Chairperson Julius Ibrani said that law enforcement agencies and the military with their current authority have repeatedly abused their authority resulting in practices of corruption and violence. Never mind, he said, if they are given additional powers through the draft laws they have submitted.
"Instead of carrying out reforms by strengthening supervision, the institutions mentioned above are actually seen competing to increase their authority", said Ibrani in a written statement on Sunday February 9.
He gave as an example the case at the Attorney General Office (AGO) related to corruption by prosecutor Pinangki Sirna Malasari who accepted bribes from a fugitive in the Bank Bali corruption case, Djoko Tjandra.
Meanwhile, a number of TNI members have also involved in corruption in civil positions such as the case that embroiled former National Search and Rescue Agency (Kabasarnas) chief Henri Alfiandi.
The National Police were also dragged into a case of extortion by its members against Malaysian nationals at the Djakarta Warehouse Project (DWP) at the Kemayoran JIExpo last year.
Ibrani is therefore concerned that if the three draft laws on these institutions are ratified, it will only increase the long list of misuse of authority.
He said that this additional authority could also endanger the climate of law enforcement and democracy in Indonesia if in the end it is used for political interests by the ruling government.
"What we need at the moment is to build accountability and transparency, one way is to strengthen the existing independent institutions that oversee them", he said.
Based on this, the Coalition is urging policy makers, namely the House of Representatives (DPR) and the government to re-evaluate the internal supervision systems for each law enforcement agency.
According to the coalition, weak internal supervision does of course tend to pave the way for evil practices or violations committed by individual rogue law enforcement members.
The coalition is also calling for the strengthening of external supervision for each law enforcement agency, such as through the Judicial Commission, the Prosecutors' Commission, the National Police Commission, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the National Commission on Women (Komnas Perempuan), so they are able to supervise, process and take action on law enforcement officials who violate the code of ethics or commit violations.
"It needs to be ensured that these external supervisory agencies can work effectively and are equipped with adequate authority and sufficient resources", Ibrani said.
He added law enforcement reform cannot be done by adding authority to these agencies, but rather by building accountability through strengthening independent supervisory institutions.
"We urge the DPR and the government to halt and reject the deliberations on the Draft Law on the National Police, the Draft Law on the Prosecutor's Office and the Draft Law on the TNI", he said.
The DPR included revisions to Law Number 16/2004 on the Indonesian Attorney General's Office in the 2025 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas). Last year meanwhile, the DPR also received a presidential letter (Surpres) approving the deliberation of the TNI and Polri bills, but these were postponed. (yoa/dal)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Koalisi Sipil Tolak Penambahan Kewenangan Polri-TNI hingga Kejaksaan".]
