The Lemhanas Proposal On The New Ministry To Supervise The Police Has Not Been Discussed And Is Considered An Old Discourse

Police Headquarters Building (VOI)

JAKARTA - The proposal for the formation of the Ministry of Homeland Security and the National Security Council submitted by the Governor of Lemhanas Agus Widjojo has been in the spotlight. The reason is that the new ministry that was initiated will be in charge of the National Police.

Agus stated that this proposal was only a discourse based on the results of his internal study 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 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.

"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 and order by the Police," he said in a year-end statement.

A number of ministers responded to this proposal, one of which was the Minister for Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform (MenPAN-RB) Tjahjo Kumolo. He emphasized that there was no discourse from the government to merge the National Police under the ministry.

"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.

Similarly, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD stated that there was no discussion about the formation of a new ministry. However, this discourse is actually not new, it has been more than ten years.

"It's a long public discourse, it's been more than 20 years," Mahfud told reporters.

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 conversation," added Mahfud.

Regarding this polemic, the Police emphasized that they would continue to work according to the laws and regulations. This includes the mandate of the 1945 Constitution and Law Number 2 of 2002 concerning the Indonesian National Police.

"In this case, the National Police are still in the corridor of the mandate of the law, as mandated by the Basic Law, Law number 2 of 2002 concerning the Indonesian National Police," said Spokesperson for the Public Relations Division of the National Police, Kombes Trunoyudo W Andiko to reporters, Monday, 3. January.

"This means that the Police are currently working on the basis of the mandate of the law. The mandate of the law is of course the mandate of the community and this is what we are still doing," he concluded.