Freedom in a state of change in Indonesia
Freedom in Indonesia is always in a state of change. Laws concerning, dress, actions, words, religious activities etc. often make the news here. Recently there have been a couple of news items, that may affect public freedom. The Indonesian government has decided, it is no longer a crimimal offence to burn photos of the President & VP, or criticize them publicly. These ‘offences’ were punishable by up to 6 years in jail. So good news for people who like to speak their mind. On the downside, the local spy network is to be reactivated.
Ministry to reactivate grassroots spy networks to ‘combat terror’
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government is planning to set up grassroots spy networks at every local administration in the country, Home Minister M. Ma’ruf says.
A new national body, the Regional Intelligence Community Agency (Kominda), will coordinate the work of the local intelligence offices, he said Tuesday.
Ma’ruf stressed the new agency would not spy on normal citizens.
“This agency will only serve as coordinating body for the intelligence agencies in local governments. It will only tackle administrative issues,” Ma’ruf said on the sidelines of a meeting with the House of Representatives Commission II on domestic affairs.
Ma’ruf said his ministry’s role was to coordinate the work of local intelligence offices, which included branches of the National Intelligence Agency, the National Police, prosecutor’s offices and the military.
He claimed the new coordinating agency would not put a strain on the state budget because it would be financed by local governments.
“How can you call it a waste of state budget money if the local legislatures and local governments agreed to allocate budgets for the new agency,” he said.
Ma’ruf earlier said the new agency would be created to counter terrorism in the country.
Kominda’s existence was based on a 2003 ministerial decree on community networks, he said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has supported the plan to reactivate intelligence gathering at the grass roots.
Last year, during a visit to the Central Java town of Surakarta, Yudhoyono said a coordinating agency would be needed to collect information about the many problems plaguing people around the country.
Critics, however, have blasted the idea, saying the emphasis on intelligence gathering harked back to the authoritarian regime of former president Soeharto. At that time, intelligence officers were deployed down to the village level to target pro-democracy activists and other critics of the government.
During the New Order era, these activities were coordinated by the much feared Coordinating Body for National Stability, popularly known as Bakorstanas. That agency was not dissolved until 2000 by president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid.
When Ika and I got married in Semarang, we had to visit the house of the local ‘chief’, who was a resident, in charge of the administering the street. There was also an area chief and a regional chief. Weird to a westerner, but normal for Indonesians. In Indonesia everyone local must be on a ‘family card’ in the area they live, or else make a new card in the place they moved to. This requires involving the local chief, getting him to sign a form etc. During the Suharto era, the level of government control went down to village level via this method, and also by the use of a country-wide, village spy network. SBY obviously thinks he needs it.