House Urged to Summon Jokowi, BIN in Relation to Intelligence Data

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Civil Coalition for Security Reform urged the House of Representatives (DPR) to use its right of inquiry to question President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo over his statement on intelligence data containing the inner workings of political parties.

"We consider the President's statement that he knows of where the political parties are going from the intelligence agencies to be a form of manifestation of bad political relations, a violation of the law, a violation of the public's political rights," an advocate from the Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI) Annisa Azzahra said in her statement, Friday, September 22, 2023.

She argued that not only the political rights of political parties but also the political rights of the public could be harmed because political parties are a means used by the public to channel their political rights.

“So the president’s statement will eventually cause problems,” she stressed.

According to her, the president's statement could harm democracy and constitute a threat to the public's freedom of political rights, as well as a violation of the State Intelligence Law. 

The State Intelligence Law states in Articles 1-1 and 5 that data and any state intelligence activities are only for something that constitutes a national threat and endangers national defense and stability.

PBHI believed that political parties are one of the foundations of a democratic country, so they are not a threat to state stability. Therefore, the president's statement is a form of misuse of state intelligence under the law.

The statement could also increase the public's distrust of the democratic government. The public would think that the parliament was "conditioned" in such a way by people in power because the information about the direction and movement of the society's politics was "supervised" by the president.

FATURAHMAN SOPHIAN

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