Police separation has implications

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.