House' control of BIN sought

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.