Indonesia needs internal security act: Military
JAKARTA (JP): The military is drafting an internal security act in anticipation of escalating disturbances to national stability in the future.
Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid, chief of the Armed Forces (ABRI) sociopolitical affairs department, said that the drafting of the bill began 10 years ago.
"We hope we can submit the bill to the House of Representatives in the very near future for deliberation," Syarwan said in a meeting with chief editors of the local mass media at the Ministry of Information.
The bill, Syarwan said, was needed because as Indonesia enters the globalization era and the demand for greater democracy increases, disturbances to national security are expected to escalate.
Syarwan declined to comment when asked if the future security act was meant as a replacement for the controversial subversion law. He only replied that the subversion law was still in force.
Critics say the subversion law is outdated and is against the spirit of democratization that Indonesia is vigorously pursuing.
Carrying a maximum penalty of death, it allows the authorities to detain a suspect up to one year without trial. This year, the National Commission on Human Rights suggested that the law be scrapped because it encouraged violations of human rights.
Syarwan said the internal security act was drafted out of concern that Indonesia no longer had an effective legal base to deal with major crises that endangered the nation's unity.
Some 20 years ago, he said, Indonesia had the powerful Kopkamtib, the command for restoration of security and order. Earlier, it also had the Extraordinary Military Tribunal, which dealt with the clampdown on activists of the Indonesian Communist Party within the army.
"At that time, all security problems could be handled fast and effectively," he said.
Syarwan said all Indonesia has at present is the Agency for the Coordination of Support for the Development of National Stability, which, unlike its predecessor Kopkamtib, does not have command authority.
Indonesia badly needs a powerful internal security act to control the increasing demand for greater political freedom from its educated citizens.
Indonesia's closest neighbors, Malaysia and Singapore, already have their own internal security acts.
Syarwan's disclosure of the internal security act bill came less than two months after the capital witnessed major politically motivated riots.
The riots were triggered by the violent takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party headquarters by supporters of a government-backed rebel faction on July 27.
The government has accused the little-known tiny Democratic People's Party for inciting the riot that claimed five lives, according to the National Commission on Human Rights. (pan)