Newly-formed security council under fire

JAKARTA (JP): Criticism poured in on the newly-established Council for the Enforcement of Security and Law, which the government has insisted would only be temporary in nature.

Some observers said the council was nothing more than President B.J. Habibie's attempt to consolidate his power.

Bambang Widjojanto from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation said the council was a display of the government's failure to learn from past mistakes.

"The government has not learned from past experiences that in a situation where the public have lost trust in it, the establishment of any such institutions would not gain popular support," Bambang said.

Benyamin Mangkoedilaga of the National Commission on Human Rights (KOMNAS) shared Bambang's view and said that the establishment of the council seemed to be irrelevant.

"It might indicate the ministers have not carried out their task properly. If the minister of defense and the others did their job properly, we would not need such a council," Benyamin said.

Habibie established the council early last month, but only announced it on Tuesday. The nonstructural body -- said to be aimed at accelerating the government's reform programs -- is chaired by the President himself, but for daily operations he has appointed Minister of Defense/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto the chairman of a smaller executive committee, Akbar said.

"The council... is assigned to control and coordinate efforts to resolve crises threatening national stability," Habibie said in his decree.

In Malang, East Java, Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Gen. (ret) Feisal Tanjung said on Thursday the council would be temporary in nature.

"The council will keep monitoring security developments and will feed existing security institutions with input," Feisal, a member of the council, said.

The council was formed because the existing institutions "had not been effective enough", he said.

"The council will be dissolved once security has been restored and existing institutions work effectively," he told journalists after attending a ceremony officiating retirement of several high-ranking military officers.

He denied the suggestion that the council was to supplant the Bakorstanas (Agency for the Coordination of Support for the Development of National Stability). He did not give details as to how the council would operate and how it would be different from Bakorstanas, which has the authority to investigate or even arrest people.

Commenting on the council, former minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said in the West Java capital of Bandung that through it, Habibie still had a chance to restore his image.

But he warned: "However, if the council just repeats the government's current way of handling politics, it won't solve any problem. It will only create even more problems."

Sarwono said he would wait until the council actually set to work before giving further comments. "Judging from the document (Presidential Decree ordering the council's establishment), I can't say much. It's very superficial," he said.

He hoped the council's members would have the will to hold dialogue and create stability without violence and uphold justice without discrimination.

Meanwhile, the secretary-general of the council of University of Indonesia's Student Representatives, Hadimulya, took a cautious stance.

"We do not see the possibility that the council will turn out to be the same as the now-defunct Internal Security Agency (Kopkamtib) yet," he said. That agency was much feared by many.

"If we look at the composition of the council, which includes government officials and human rights and religious figures, its main duty is to maintain undisturbed national stability," he said.

He, however, added that the students would cautiously wait for the development of the council's role and function.

"We'll put pressure on and criticize the council's existence if it later turns out to be the same as Kopkamtib," he said.

Hadimulya also doubted the effectiveness of such a council, saying that the moral campaign by several noted public figures was ignored and unheeded by the people as violence was still found everywhere. (byg/prb/43/44/imn/aan)