Urgency Of The DPR Supervisory Team: So That Intelligence Work Is Not Misused

Photo by Chris Yang on Unsplash

JAKARTA - The Indonesian House of Representatives has formed an Intelligence Supervisory Team (Timwas) to oversee the performance of intelligence institutions owned by Indonesia. The formation of this DPR intelligence supervisory team is considered as an effort to ensure that intelligence performance in Indonesia is not misused.

The DPR Intelligence Supervisory Team was inaugurated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Puan Maharani, on Tuesday (3/12). In total there are 13 members of the DPR Intelligencewas Team under the coordination of Sufmi Dasco Ahmad as Deputy Chair of the Indonesian House of Representatives Coordinator for Political and Security Affairs (Korpolkam).

The formation of the Intelligence Supervisory Team is a follow-up to Law Number 17 of 2011 concerning State Intelligence. Article 43 paragraph (2) of the Law states that external supervision of State Intelligence operators is carried out by commissions at the Indonesian People's Representative Council which specifically handles intelligence, in this case is Commission I of the DPR.

Puan said that the DPR's Timwas is tasked with synergizing between all ministries/agencies that have intelligence units. Thus, state intelligence work can be carried out properly and correctly.

"Puan certainly understands that intelligence work is easy to turn or misuse for certain political interests. Not to mention, the potential for overlapping intelligence functions," said Defense and Military Observer Anton Aliabbas, Friday, December 6.

"Therefore, as the Chairman of the DPR said, synergy between intelligence institutions is indeed the key to avoiding dysharmoni in the field," said the Lecturer at Paramadina University.

Even though it sounds normative, Anton assesses that what the DPR has said regarding surveillance of intelligence performance is a message that must be voiced repeatedly.

"At least, the public can record ideas and enthusiasm that must be done and will be carried out by the Intelligence Team," said Anton.

The Head of the Center for Intermestic and Diplomatic Engagement (CIDE) also hopes that the DPRwas Team will be able to ensure the synergy of intelligence organizations as well as carry out effective supervision. However, Anton advised the DPR to inform the public about its supervisory work in this field of intelligence.

"Obviously, what is called an effective monitoring model is not something that is confidential in nature. In fact, the public needs to know and be involved in enriching the supervision," he said.

On this basis, Anton reminded that the DPR Intelligencewas Team can continue to update the results of its supervision to the public even though it is limited considering that intelligence cannot be disclosed to the public.

"After all, the public still needs information whether Timwas really works or not. And of course, the public will actually wonder if Timwas has never held meetings throughout the year," said Anton.

Previously, Puan expressed her hope that the DPR Intelligence Supervisory Team could work together with institutions or agencies related to the intelligence as well as possible, such as the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), the TNI Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS), to the National Police Intelligence and Security Agency (Baintelkam).

"What is certain is that there must be synergy and coordination between all related parties so that we can build the nation and state without any misunderstandings," said Puan after inaugurating the DPR Intelligence Supervisory Team, Tuesday (3/12).

In total there are 13 members of the Intelligence Supervisory Team from the DPR, of which 5 people are leaders. The five leaders of the DPR Intelligence Supervisory Team are Utut Adianto, Dave Lasono, G. Budisatrio Djiwanno, Ahmad Heryawan, and Anton Sukartono.

Meanwhile, Dave Laksono, who is also the Deputy Chairman of Commission I of the DPR, emphasized that the formation of the DPR RI Intelligence Supervisory Team was one of the efforts to support the country from potential detrimental threats. Timwas is said to be ensuring that the intelligence community in Indonesia works well and coordinates with each other.

"The intelligence function is that data collection was combined to become an assumption that movement has the potential to pose a threat to the state," explained Dave Laksono, Wednesday (4/12).

Dave explained that every law enforcement agency and state defense institution have their own intelligence units, so there needs to be supervision from the DPR as an institution whose job is to oversee the work of the Government.

"Usually this is also to ensure that the Indonesian intelligence community works well," said the legislator from the West Java VIII electoral district.

In addition, according to Dave, the DPR Intelligencewas Team also has the task of ensuring state intelligence agencies coordinate with each other when carrying out their functions and authorities in protecting the nation from all threats. Thus, intelligence data results are obtained accurately.

"And (so that the intelligence community) communicates with each other to ensure accurate information is received by the highest leadership in making decisions relating to the Indonesian people," explained Dave.

Furthermore, Dave said that the formation of the DPR Intelligencewas Team was also an important momentum in strengthening parliamentary supervision of state intelligence institutions, in order to create better synergies among Indonesian intelligence institutions.

"This team has a crucial role to play in ensuring that the synergy between all ministries and institutions. With effective supervision, things that need to be anticipated or mitigated by the DPR can be carried out properly and correctly," he concluded.