PKS Rejects PDIP's Proposal On Police Under The Ministry Of Home Affairs: Great Resignation!

PKS Secretary General Aboebakar Alhabsyi and PSI Chairman Kaesang Pangarep. at the PKS Jakarta DPP Office, Monday 8 July 2024 (Nailin/VOI)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission III of the Indonesian House of Representatives from the PKS faction, Aboe Bakar Al-Habsyi, rejected the PDIP legislator, Deddy Yevry Sitorus, so that the National Police institution is under the control of the Indonesian National Army (TNI) or the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri).

According to Aboe, the return of the Police under the TNI or the Ministry of Home Affairs is a setback.

"This step is a form of a big setback! It is not in line with the mandate of the Police reform that has been fought for," Aboe said in his statement, Monday, December 2.

Aboe explained that the National Police institution had been separated from the Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia (ABRI) in 2000 and the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1946 with the aim of making it an independent and professional institution.

"We have been under the Ministry of Home Affairs, we have also been with the TNI. So we don't need to repeat the bad past," he said.

According to Aboe, placing the National Police under the TNI or the Ministry of Home Affairs is not a solution. If there is an allegation of involvement of Polri personnel in the 2024 Pilkada, Aboe suggested that a proportional evaluation should be carried out.

"If there are people who are political, positioning the Police under the Ministry of Home Affairs is not a solution. This discourse risks placing the Police in a greater potential political intervention," he said.

"If there are indeed problems related to the neutrality and professionalism of the Police, especially in the implementation of the Pilkada, then this should be the focus of evaluation and improvement," continued the Secretary General of PKS.

Aboe then invited all parties to maintain the spirit of Polri reform and not take steps back that could disrupt legal and democratic stability.

Police are state institutions, not certain government tools. Police reform must continue to be strengthened, not reversed to the past," he concluded.

Previously, the Chairperson of the PDIP DPP in the field of Winning Executive Elections, Deddy Yevry Sitorus, suggested that the National Police be brought back under the control of the TNI or the Ministry of Home Affairs. This proposal emerged in response to the results of the 2024 simultaneous regional elections in a number of areas where police officers were deployed.

"We are investigating the possibility to push the Police back under the control of the TNI Commander or for the Police to be returned to the Ministry of Home Affairs," said Deddy at the PDIP DPP Office, Jakarta, Thursday, November 28.

He explained that the reason his party suggested that the National Police be placed under the Ministry of Home Affairs was because currently there are many problems within the Police. Mainly, the Police are fussy in the political field.

In fact, he said, the 5th President of the Republic of Indonesia and PDIP General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri separated the TNI and Polri in 2000 so that the Police as a civilian institution armed could independently serve the community.

"But what we have experienced so far is that the National Police institution is not only in the political field, but matters related to its own institutions and protection services for the community are experiencing extraordinary degradation," said Deddy.