Govt wants to improve intelligence capacity

JAKARTA (JP): The government is revamping the State Intelligence Coordinating Board (Bakin) in order to gain accurate information and intelligence data, Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Wednesday.

Susilo said Bakin would be given a new name, National Intelligence Agency (BIN). The government will decide on the matter on Oct. 24 at the latest.

"With Bakin's reorganization, the government hopes to improve the capacity of the state intelligence board because accurate information and intelligence data are needed in making decisions and policies," he said after a special meeting with ministers under his coordination here on Wednesday.

He said BIN would have greater authority than Bakin, whose services have been reduced to a coordinative function.

Separately, Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D. said his office would also establish an intelligence agency outside BIN and the currently influential Indonesian Military's Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS).

"We are planning to establish a defense intelligence agency (DIA) to provide accurate intelligence data to the government because so far, the government has yet to have intelligence sources," he said in a hearing with House of Representatives Commission for foreign policy, security and defense on Wednesday.

He said the new defense intelligence agency would recruit a larger part of BAIS personnel so that the military's intelligence agency could be dissolved because the Army, Navy and Air Force as TNI's entities would have their own intelligence sections.

He acknowledged that the plan to establish DIA would depend much on the defense budget.

"It is difficult for us to make a decision because the House is very tight with the state budget while the intelligence agency will need unlimited funding to carry out missions," he said. (rms)