Tjahjo Kumolo Affirms There Is No Government Discourse To Merge Police Under Ministries

Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo (Photo: menpan.go.id)

JAKARTA - The Minister for Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform (MenPAN-RB) Tjahjo Kumolo emphasized that there was no discourse from the government to merge the National Police under the ministry.

This statement was made after the polemic that said the National Police would be merged under the Ministry of Homeland Security.

"What I understand is that there is no plan (to merge, red) the Police under the ministry," Tjahjo told reporters quoted on Monday, December 3.

Tjahjo said that the National Police as an instrument of the state must be independent and cannot be under any institution. The PDIP politician said this was similar to the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the TNI.

"Police must be independent as an instrument of the state like BIN and the TNI," he stressed.

The proposal for the inclusion of the National Police under this ministry was conveyed by the Governor of Lemhanas Agus Widjojo in a statement at the end of 2021 some time ago. At that time, Agus proposed the establishment of the Ministry of Homeland Security and the National Security Council.

The proposal based on the results of an internal study of the institution stated that the Ministry of Homeland Security would later oversee the National Police.

Agus stated that this proposal was only a discourse and had not been officially proposed to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). But, he considered, the Police as an operational institution should not be able to formulate its own policies.

The reason for the need to form the Ministry of Homeland Security is because Lemhanas assesses the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) has too much workload. Thus, it is necessary to form a new ministry to address security issues that have been included in the ministry's portfolio.

"To realize security and order, there needs to be law enforcement, namely the National Police. It should be placed under one ministry, and the National Police like the TNI, an operational institution. Operations must be formulated at the ministerial level by a political institution, from which policy formulations are made, defense by TNI, and security of order by the Police," said Agus.