The Jakarta Post, December 12, 2003
Legislation blamed for frequent TNI-police clashes
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The frequent clashes between members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the
National Police across the country are the result of the separation of the two
institutions, military officers and an observer say.
Maj. Gen. Sudrajat, the director-general of strategic planning of the defense ministry,
also said on Thursday that legislators and the government must consider reviewing
several laws concerning the separation of the police from the military.
The legislation, particularly the People's Consultative Assembly Decree No. 6/2000
and No. 7/2000 concerning the authority of each institution, have confused both police
and military personnel, he argued.
"Legislators and the government cannot order the military to handle external security
threats and the police to handle internal security threats just like that.
"We are currently facing nontraditional security threats, a domain which is the
responsibility of both the military and the police," said Sudrajat, suggesting that there
would not be any invasions from other countries for the next 20 years.
The legislation, he said, has created rivalry, as exemplified in the issue of terrorism,
which has created rivalry between the police, which set up an antiterror team, and the
military, which has many similar teams.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu concurred, saying that the clashes
between the military and the police were the result of the legislation.
"There will be further clashes (between the military and police members) in the future
if the legislation is not changed," he was quoted by Antara as saying in Magelang,
Central Java.
Meanwhile, military analyst Edy Prasetyono of the Centre for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS) agreed that the decrees needed to be reviewed or
amended, saying that they failed to accommodate the government's right to deploy
either the military or police for security duties.
"The police are supposedly under the home affairs ministry, and the military has been
put under the defense ministry. This unequal distribution of power has created
jealousy among military personnel. The commanders might accept this but not their
subordinates across the country," he explained.
Edy said that legislators should not decide the duties of the military and police.
"There are gray areas such as armed-rebellion, which is obviously not only the
responsibility of police. Legislators and the government must understand that only the
government has the authority to deploy either police or military forces to settle
security threats," he said.
The government must be able to decide when they have to deploy police or when it
has to order military to deal with security threats.
"So, the duties of the military and police must be based on the level of security
threats. It is the government that decides on the institution to be deployed during
times of peace and low conflict, or in times of conflict and war," Edy said.
Sudrajat, however, admitted that the military was still experiencing difficulty in
accepting civilian leadership.
"The military has not been ordered by civilians for years. Now, they sometimes have
to receive instructions from uniformed (police officers). It is hard for them to accept
this, particularly when they have to receive orders from civilians in the defense
ministry," he revealed.
Separately, legislator Happy Bone Zulkarnaen and former National Police chief
Awaloeddin Djamien rejected the theory that legislation had caused clashes among
the security forces, saying that the clashes were about discipline.
The clashes between police and military personnel in East Kalimantan on Tuesday
were the latest of many clashes following a similar incident in South Sulawesi a week
earlier.
In February, soldiers and police officers were involved in a clash in Dumai, a Riau port
town, in which two policemen were injured, while in September 2002 eight people
were killed in 10 hours of fighting between the Army and police in the town of Binjai,
North Sumatra.
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