'Alert centers need House approval to be permanent'
'Alert centers need House approval to be permanent'
SEMARANG (JP): The government should first solicit the
approval of the House of Representatives if the "alert command
centers" it plans to establish are to be permanent, says a legal
expert.
Muladi, who is rector of the Diponegoro University, said here
yesterday the government needed a legal basis for the planned
centers. He further said the country's social and political
conditions should determine whether the centers are permanent or
only temporary.
Muladi was commenting on recent statements, from Armed Forces
Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung and Coordinating Minister for Political
Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman, which said the centers
were not being established to solve transient problems but to be
permanent watchdogs.
Muladi cited the Operation Command for Law and Order
Restoration (Kopkamtib), a former much-feared internal security
agency, as an example of how something had to go due to changed
conditions.
The scholar, also member of the National Commission on Human
Rights, said no agencies should be permanent. "For me, only the
state ideology Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution should stay
permanent. The rest are incidental, depending on the social and
political conditions," Muladi said.
He called for "positive thinking" when asked if the move
to establish the centers implied the country was in a state of
emergency.
The alert centers will be established in about 240 district
military commands nationwide on Jan. 30.
The idea for the centers was first aired by President Soeharto
recently; it followed racist and sectarian upheavals throughout
the country late last year and earlier this year.
Many observers blame the riots on widespread injustices, and
social and economic disparities which they believe have made
people more prone to violence.
Muladi said he agreed that polarizing social issues, such as
those stemming from ethnic, religious, and group differences,
were rife and posed threats to Indonesia's unity.
However, there was no reason for the centers to be permanent,
he said.
"When the time is right, those centers should be dissolved,
and we can go back to relying on Bakorstanas," he said.
He was referring to the Agency for the Coordination of Support
for the Development of National Stability, a newer, reportedly
more lenient internal security agency that replaced Kopkamtib in
the late 1980s.
"What's important is that the centers are responsive to
people's aspirations," he said.
"If these alert centers work professionally and in a
transparent manner, I am sure people will run to them every time
they encounter potentially divisive issues," he said.
Muladi called for good supervision for the centers, as they
would operate at the district military command level, where
officers were often more used to simply taking orders.
"Therefore, the government needs to involve social, political
and legal experts in establishing these centers," Muladi said.
(har/08)