Sampit tragedy

Sampit tragedy

From Kompas

Many have attributed the human tragedy in Sampit to the
tardiness of government, including those in charge of security.
Under regional autonomy, utmost responsibility would lie with the
head of a province or regency. Of course, we cannot simply blame
such officials before taking a close look at the area in
question.

It is really a shame that a regional head must now assume
wide-ranging responsibility such as maintaining security and
order and guaranteeing safety and security in the community,
without the authority to give a direct command to security
officers.

The regional police are not under the command of a regional
head; they are under the command of the regional police chief (at
a district or provincial level). The head of a regional
administration and a regional police chief can only coordinate
with each other through the regional leaders' consultative body,
(Muspida), which, unfortunately, is not very active at present.

Hence I call on legislators discussing the bill on the police
to include a stipulation that regional police should be put, on a
tactical and operational basis, under the head of a regional
administration. The regional police would be administratively
independent.

A regional administration would allocate operational costs for
the police in its regional budget. In this way, I am sure that a
regional administration can realize its determination to maintain
security and eradicate illegal logging, gambling, scalping and
the like. The regional council could directly exercise control
over the local administrations' performance.

Let us make the Sampit tragedy a valuable lesson so that we
can put things right in future.

HM SAID

Banjarmasin