Police separation has implications

The National Police has been separated from the Armed Forces beginning this month. Political analyst J. Soedjati Djiwandono thinks the separation might be a beginning of the right move.

JAKARTA (JP): The separation of the police force from the armed forces (ABRI) or the Indonesian National Solders (TNI) as it has been renamed since April 1, 1999 is at this stage no more than symbolic. From hence on the police force is to be under the command of Minister of Defense and Security, General Wiranto. But he is the same man as Commander of the armed forces or TNI.

However, it may form part of the beginning of the right process towards independence of the police force in the sense of putting it in its proper place as guardian of public order and security, as law-enforcement agency. Hopefully, it also serves as a further step towards a complete withdrawal of the armed forces as well as the police since the latter had been integrated into ABRI.

Under the parliamentary system of the 1950s, the police was directly under the office of the Prime Minister, before president Sukarno integrated it with ABRI. Since then the police had been one element of ABRI with its triple functions, namely one as law enforcement agency, as such a guardian of public order and security, as a defense and security apparatus, by definition defense and security of the country against a possible external threat to national security, and finally as a socio-political force in the context of ABRI's so-called dual function.

In the end, therefore, the police force has been one element or service of the armed forces or ABRI, with confusion or overlapping of function between military, police, and socio- political functions. The separation of the police force from ABRI, therefore, may be expected to serve as a streamlining of the function not only of the police force, but also of the three military services of ABRI, now TNI (for Tentara National Indonesia).

If that should be the case, then there are certain possible implications for the future. Firstly, as has been mentioned briefly above, the separation of the police force from TNI should form part of the initial process of the withdrawal of the TNI from the socio-political field.

Secondly, whether or not the post of defense and security will continue to be held concurrently by the commander of TNI, the police force should be under the home affairs minister rather than the minister of defense and security. There is definitely a distinction between the function of the police force and that of the military or the TNI in Indonesia.

The military is a state apparatus for defense and security against any possible external threat to national security. The police force is a state apparatus for law-enforcement, that is to say, to prevent violation of law and to take action against violation of law in the form of criminal acts so as to ensure public order and security. It is not to ensure security from nor against the people in the interest of those in power as has often been the case under the Old Order regime.

Thirdly, given that Indonesia perceives no perception of external threat to its national security so that the possibility of a war with a foreign country is practically negligible, the size of the army may gradually be reduced, whereas the size of the police force enlarged. Being responsible for internal security, we need a much bigger police force than we have now.

At the same time, Indonesia being one of the largest maritime nations in the world, we would need stronger navy and air force than the army. It is strange, not to say ironical, that so far we have had a large army not only because of the need for territorial command and perhaps it is less costly to maintain an army than a navy and an air force, but also because of the consequences of the dual function.

The need for a large navy and air force has little to do with the possibility of war, but it relates to the need to guard our coasts and the thousands of islands of this largest archipelago in the world against such incidents as smuggling, piracy, and illegal border crossing.

All those challenges are to be long-time problems, of course, not only because of the continuing economic crisis, but also more importantly because both the police and the TNI would need time to adjust to a new way of thinking. Vested interests are not easily done away with. And a new pattern of relationship -- less in the nature of rivalry -- needs to be developed gradually.