House' control of BIN sought

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives should exercise some control over the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the country's other intelligence bodies to prevent their possible misuse by the state as happened during the New Order regime, says a former intelligence officer.

Former senior intelligence official Suripto said that a sub- committee to monitor the workings of the nation's intelligence agencies should be formed by House Commission I, which oversees politics, security and foreign affairs.

Suripto made the statements in light of recent strong accusations, the latest one made by former chief of the State Intelligence Coordinating Board (Bakin) Lt. Gen. (ret) Z.A. Maulani, that BIN was involved in the arrests of three Indonesian citizens in Manila last month.

Maulani said the arrests of Agus Dwikarna, Abdul Jamal Balfas and Tamsil Linrung, a former deputy treasurer of the National Mandate Party (PAN) were made upon the request of the Indonesian government under a government-to-government arrangement with the Philippines.

Bakin was renamed BIN by the government of former president Abdurrahman Wahid in 1999.

"During the New Order regime of president Soeharto, intelligence agencies were a forbidden territory for the public, and instead became an undisputed power that terrorized the Indonesian public itself," Suripto told reporters on Sunday, as quoted by Antara.

"There needs to be control of intelligence bodies. The general public's participation in the monitoring of the workings of the intelligence needs to be there, to prevent further abuse of power."

He speculated that the arrests of the three Indonesians in Manila could very well be the results of a "covert action" by Indonesian intelligence officials.

Apart from BIN, intelligence activities are conducted by the Indonesian Military Strategic Intelligence Agency (Bais), the National Police and the Attorney General's Office.

Separately, PAN chief Amien Rais called on the public not to blow the incident out of proportion.

"If an Indonesian is arrested abroad, then the government should provide legal protection for the person. That's it.

We should wait patiently for the government to bail the three men out of jail," Amien said in Bandung.