Lemhanas Suggests For The Ministry Of Homeland Security, Mahfud MD: Old Discourse, It's Been More Than 20 Years

Mahfud MD/Antara

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD, said the proposal to form the Ministry of Homeland Security and the National Security Council is an old discourse. In fact, this proposal has been around for decades.

This was conveyed by Mahfud in response to the year-end statement by the Governor of Lemhanas Agus Widjojo. At that time, Agus proposed the establishment of the Ministry of Homeland Security and the National Security Council.

"It's a long public discourse, it's been more than 20 years," Mahfud told reporters quoted on Monday, January 3.

Despite the old discourse, the former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) emphasized that there had been no discussion on this matter. Likewise, the matter of merging the Police under the ministry.

Mahfud asked that this matter should be discussed in parliament. "That's the area of the legislature," he said.

"In the government itself, there has never been such a discussion," added Mahfud. It was previously reported that the proposal for the entry of the National Police under this ministry was submitted 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.

According to him, the proposal emerged based on the results of an internal study at the National Defense Institute. In this study, the Ministry of Homeland Security was formed to oversee the National Police.

The reason for the need to form the Ministry of Homeland Security is because Lemhanas assesses that 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.

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.

"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.