Regional offices to revitalize network: BIN
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Hendropriyono said on Monday that the planned establishment of his agency's branches at the provincial, municipal and regental levels was aimed at revitalizing the office.
Speaking publicly for the first time on Monday regarding the plan, Hendropriyono said the move was designed to inject new life into intelligence offices across the country.
"We already have the network up to the municipal level, but we need to revitalize the system," Hendropriyono said before attending a Cabinet meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
"The posts are already there, but some have no personnel, while some need to be strengthened," said the retired three-star Army general.
However, he refused to disclose the number of existing personnel on the field and possible additional people to strengthen the intelligence community.
Hendropriyono first floated the idea to set up intelligence offices at the municipal level following the deadly Bali bombing that killed more than 200 people on Oct. 12, 2002.
For some, the terrorist attack as well as several ensuing bomb attacks pointed to poor performance on the part of intelligence agencies.
After receiving Presidential Instruction No. 5/2002 that reinstated BIN's coordinating authority, Hendropriyono said that coordination should begin at the grassroots level.
With the coordinating authority, intelligence officers from the police, military and prosecutor's office should report the results of their intelligence analysis to BIN.
Hendropriyono said the government would still discuss the legal basis for the establishment of these offices.
A staff member at the State Secretariat said on Monday that BIN had not yet submitted a written proposal on the planned establishment of intelligence offices at the provincial and municipal and regental levels.
"They (BIN office) should submit the draft first before we can do anything with it and so far we have not received a draft from them," the official told The Jakarta Post.
The debate over the establishment of these intelligence offices came to the fore again after State Minister for Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamim said that President Megawati was ready to sign a decree to officiate the branches.
He said last week that the decree would detail the structure of the offices and appoint regional government leaders as supervisors of the intelligence community.
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, however, expressed concern over the plan, saying that such a move should obtain approval from the Cabinet.