'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)