Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto has rebuffed speculation that the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) would be placed under his watch following President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's order last week that his ministry should coordinate efforts in the collection of intelligence information.

Prabowo said on Monday that he would only help coordinate the collection of intelligence information carried out by the relevant spy agencies.

"BIN would not be under the authority of the Defense Ministry. The order from the President was that we will be a kind of coordinator, just to help him judge the merit of the information," Prabowo said, quoted by Antara news wire.

Last week, during a leadership meeting of the Defense Ministry, President Jokowi called on Prabowo to coordinate the work of collecting intelligence information carried out by a wide range of institutions, from BIN, the intelligence departments of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and that of the National Police to the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN).

"The collection process needs to be orchestrated so that we can get reliable information. This information can determine how policies are made," Jokowi said in his speech.

In the speech, Jokowi also said that credible intelligence information could prevent possible threats to national security.

"This information should tell us to be careful, that something bad could happen. The idea should not be to tell me after bad things happen," Jokowi said, quoted by Antara.

In 2020, President Jokowi issued a regulation stipulating that BIN will work directly under the President in a bid to streamline intelligence reporting.

Presidential Regulation No. 37/2020 states that the BIN is no longer under the supervision of the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister. The new regulation takes effect on July 3 and revises the previous regulation, No. 43/2015.

BIN is currently under the leadership of Budi Gunawan, a former police general whom many deem to be a close confidant of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Source:
courtesy of THE JAKARTA POST

by News Desk (The Jakarta Post)

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