The National Police Bill Potentially Creates Countries In The Country

Photo of Luthfiah VOI

JAKARTA The Draft Law on the Third Amendment to Law No. 2 of 2002 concerning the Indonesian National Police (RUU Polri) has officially become the proposal for the DPR initiative. Unfortunately, instead of being a transparent and professional police reform step, this bill has actually drawn sharp criticism because it has the potential to make the Police a 'superbody' institution with uncontrolled authority.

Former Defense University Lecturer, Admiral TNI (Ret.) Jaya Darmawan assessed that a number of articles in the draft were considered to lead to the expansion of police authority in excess (excessive power) without a strong monitoring mechanism. Ironically, this bill actually ignores various fundamental problems within the National Police, including weak accountability, rampant abuse of power (abuse of power), and human rights violations that have often occurred.

He revealed that a number of civil society organizations and state institutions have long criticized authoritarianism trends within police institutions. Data from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) shows that in the 2020-2024 period, there were thousands of cases of violence involving members of the National Police. Throughout July 2020 alone, there were 651 cases, which increased to 677 cases in the next period.

The forms of violations committed by the police vary, ranging from shootings, torture, torture (torture), arbitrary arrests (arbitrary arrests), to killings outside the legal process (extrajudicial killing). This fact is reinforced by reports from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), which recorded 67 deaths due to extrajudicial killings throughout 2019, as well as 130 other cases which include criminalization, wrongful arrest, to intimidation of civil society.

Komnas HAM data also shows that the National Police has consistently become the most reported state institution related to human rights violations. In 2023, there were 771 complaints against the National Police out of a total of 2,753 cases that were submitted to Komnas HAM. The Indonesian Ombudsman's report in the last four years also confirmed a similar trend, in which the National Police ranked the top as the state institution with the highest maladministration report.

"With these various notes, the public will certainly wonder whether this Police Bill will improve the police institution or actually perpetuate impunity and strengthen the dominance of the Police in the structure of state power," said Jaya, Monday, April 21, 2025.

Unbounded Authority

According to him, one of the controversial articles in the National Police Bill is Article 16 Paragraph (1) Letter (q), which gives the National Police broad authority in monitoring cyberspace, including blocking and restricting internet access. History records that internet access restrictions have been used to reduce public criticism and protests, as happened in Papua in 2019. If this authority is passed without clear control, then freedom of expression in the digital era is at risk of being restrained in the name of national security'.

In addition, the National Police Bill also drastically expands the authority of police intelligence. Through Article 16A, the National Police is given the right to carry out elimination of intelligence, an action aimed at influencing individuals or groups for certain interests. In fact, in a democratic country, intelligence functions are generally limited to special institutions such as BIN or BAIS. Meanwhile, Article 16B allows the police to carry out determination and prevention' of activities that are considered to threaten national interests a term that is multiple interpretations and prone to misuse to silence opposition or critical groups against the government.

"The direction again is that this bill also gives the authority to wiretap the Police without a clear court permit mechanism, in contrast to the KPK which is required to obtain permission from the Supervisory Board before conducting wiretapping. With this amount of authority, the National Police has the potential to become a political tool that can be used to supervise, intimidate, and even criminalize anyone who is considered to destabilize power," Jaya explained.

He is worried that the National Police Bill will pave the way for the revival of 'dwifunctions' in security institutions, where the National Police will not only act as law enforcement officers, but also as political actors who can influence the running of the government. With the wider authority in the field of intelligence, digital supervision, and control of civil liberties, the National Police can easily be used as a political tool to perpetuate the power of certain groups.

Police observer from the Institute for Security and Strategic Studies (ISESS), Bambang Rukminto, believes that the greater authority to conduct intelligence wiretapping and raising has the potential to make the police a tool of the authorities' interests. "This authority seems to have political content to safeguard the interests of the authorities," he added.

He explained that Article 14 (b) and Article 16 (q) in the National Police Bill gave broad authority to the National Police to carry out guidance, supervision, and blocking or slowing down cyberspace access on national security grounds. In fact, the National Police must work in the corridor of democratic principles and must not violate the constitutional rights of citizens. Therefore, this article has the potential to be used as a tool to limit freedom of expression and censor information that is considered to threaten the interests of the political elite.

For example, in 2019, the government through the National Police and the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo) cut off the internet network in Papua and West Papua for national security reasons. This action is considered as an attempt to silence information related to human rights violations that occurred in the region. "The blocking of news sites and social media accounts containing criticism of government policies has also occurred. One example is the blocking of independent news pages that report alleged human rights violations by security forces," Bambang added.

Article 14 (o) which regulates that the National Police has the authority to conduct wiretapping within its scope of duties without requiring permission from an independent institution or court order also has the potential for wiretapping of individuals without a clear legal basis, threatening the right to privacy and free speech.

"In various reports, human rights activists and investigative journalists experience illegal wiretapping that leads to intimidation and threats. Some of them have even experienced digital attacks and hacking of their personal accounts. Not to mention the alleged wiretapping of academics who voice criticism of government infrastructure projects, which are followed by threats against them directly or through their families," said Bambang.

He stated that the National Police Bill should focus on substance that can strengthen supervision and reform within the police, one of which is strengthening the National Police Commission (Kompolnas). This is because so far the National Police Commission has been ineffective because the representatives of civil society are only 30 percent, while the rest are filled by the government and the police so that the National Police Commission is very ineffective in conducting control and supervision.

Bambang said, in a healthy democratic system, the principles of checks and balances between state institutions should be maintained so that no single institution has absolute power. However, instead of designing a stricter control mechanism for the Police, this bill actually increases its authority without being balanced with adequate public control.

"If this bill is passed without a significant revision, then Indonesia is at risk of experiencing a decline in democracy with the greater potential for abuse of power within the National Police. This is contrary to the spirit of reform in 1998 which seeks to build law enforcement institutions that are transparent, professional, and accountable," he stressed.

Head of Public Relations Division of the National Police Headquarters, Sandi Nugroho, asked the public not to put too much suspicion regarding the revision of the Police Law. Moreover, the process of discussing the National Police Bill has not yet been rolled out in the DPR with the government. According to him, it is not certain what the public is worried about will be contained in the discussion of the National Police Bill.

He stated that the National Police only hopes that the revision of the Police Law can be a benefit and make the Police able to work better in the future, including the proposal to increase their retirement age in order to increase the period of service for the National Police for the community, nation and state.

"The National Police certainly hopes that this revision of the law can be a motivation in serving the nation and state. The National Police also believes that the revision of the Police Law can be useful for police agencies so that it is better in the future," said Sandi.

Kompolnas commissioner, Muhammad Choirul Anam, encourages the supervision of the National Police, both internally and externally, to be strengthened through the National Police Bill. He revealed that this supervision needs to be strengthened considering the number of police personnel who commit violations, even commit crimes. "Many violations are committed by unscrupulous members, some even commit evil acts. Is internal supervision sufficient or does it need to be strengthened in order to ensure that the police can be professional and have good performance. For example, Propam can be strengthened in the National Police Bill," he added.

He considered that the National Police Bill should not only discuss the authority of the Police for outsiders, but also discuss internal police governance. In addition, the discussion of the National Police Bill must also read the dynamics in the community. If there are problems on the side of policy, the National Police Bill is deemed necessary to support the strengthening of institutional authority. However, if the problems that exist are precisely the rampant errors by members of the National Police, the aspect of supervision should be strengthened.

So, we can distinguish whether the policy problem that leads to the authority or whether the daily problem of membership is the performance of both professionalism. Or, are various forms of violations by members. Well, if those two are problems, yes, the problem is supervision, internal and external," Anam concluded.