TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo should take a good look at the issue of police arms imports. The procurement of thousands of grenade launchers for the Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) has triggered a sharp friction between the army and the police. It is not enough for the President to only reduce the tensions: he needs to deal with the crux of the problem, which is the lack of coordination and transparency in arms imports.
It will be difficult to conceal these strains because the first person to imply that this arms order was 'illegal' was Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander, Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo. The initial rumor culminated with the import of 280 grenade launchers and 5,932 rounds of ammunition from Bulgaria. This consignment for Brimob was withheld at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport cargo area until the end of September because there was no import license from the military's Strategic Intelligence Unita major body under the TNI Headquarters.
However, the fuss over these arms imports can also be seen as a political maneuver by Gatot, who is due to retire next March. He should not be going public with internal cabinet matters in the first place. Before this, he had frequently made inappropriate political statements, and is clearly close to Islamist groups. The four-star general made an appearance at the 212 demonstration at the end of last year wearing the traditional Muslim white cap seemingly an indication of his support for the demonstrators. This is odd, since at the time, the police claimed there were subversive elements behind the demonstration.
So far the President has given the right response to the arms import issue. Jokowi made a clear statement in last week's cabinet meeting: as supreme commander of the TNI, he ordered all sides that there be no unnecessary commotion in this matter. In the commemoration ceremony of TNI's 72nd anniversary, he also called for the military to stay out of politics. This was a stern warning to the TNI commander.
Despite all that, Jokowi must immediately fix the coordination issue between the police and the army in arms procurement. Regulation on this issue has been clearly set out in Law No. 16/2012 on the Defense Industry. All arms procurement must have a permit from the Ministry of Defense. The President should know this because he is the chairman of the Defense Industry Policy Committee. Arms imports also need the approval of this committee.
A more detailed procedure for importing arms is regulated in Defense Ministerial Regulation No. 7/2010. As well as obtaining approval from the defense minister, there also needs to be a recommendation from the TNI HQ. In the case of the Brimob grenade launchers, there was no such recommendation. It transpired that the National Police (Polri) had not received a recommendation for the import of these military standard weapons despite sending a letter to the TNI's Strategic Intelligence Unit on September 19. This clearly shows the poor coordination between senior officials in both institutions.
Moreover, the President needs to push for transparency in the tenders for arms procurement. There must be fair competition in an open tender process. The old excuse that weaponry is a state secret is rather contrived. According to the law, plans for the construction of defense equipment should be kept secret, but not arms imports.
The tender for the Brimob grenade launchers was strange because it was passed so quickly. The Polri tender website stated that the arms procurement tender would use Rp26.94 billion from the 2017 Amended State Budget. Several companies participated in the tender, but the only offer price mentioned was that from Mustika Dutamas. This company was declared the winner on September 15, with the contract signing period from September 26-October 9. Strangely, by the end of September, the goods were already at the airport.
Arms imports should be selective because the Defense Industry Law obliges institutions that use weapons to prioritize domestic production. State-owned Pindad also manufactures grenade launchers, albeit of a different type. And even if Pindad were unable to supply the quantity ordered, the procurement could be done in stages, which would also have saved money.
The budget for the salaries and equipment for the TNI and Polri is very large. Budgets for the Ministry of Defense and the National Police are always in the top three, only surpassed by that of the Ministry of Public Works, most of which is used for the building of infrastructure. Funding for Polri has risen significantly under Jokowi’s administration, from Rp44 trillion in 2014 to Rp84 trillion in 2017.
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