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Although the idea had previously been rejected by legislators, the government decided on Tuesday to revive the controversial plan to give the country’s intelligence agency the authority to arrest suspected terrorists.  

“The government wants the State Intelligence Agency [BIN] to be given the right to arrest terror suspects 24/7,” said Ramadhan Pohan, a Democratic Party lawmaker from the House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees defense and foreign affairs.

The same commission is responsible for deliberating the intelligence bill and had previously discussed the proposed authority to arrest without evidence and decided against it, after sparking widespread controversy and criticism from human rights activists.  

“The government is now insisting to give such authority to the intelligence agency, but only for terror-related cases. The government said the authority is needed to prevent acts of terror,” Ramadhan said.  

The bill was drawn up to reform the country’s many institutional intelligence agencies that fall outside the auspices of the BIN and has been touted as a much-needed boost to the country’s intelligence system.    

Commission I chairman Mahfudz Siddiq said the authority to arrest falls under Article 6 of the proposed bill, which tackles how the intelligence agency will be given the authority to exercise investigative, security-related and mobilization functions against anything that could threaten the national interest.  

“We have yet come to an agreement over the idea. But technical issues of the article, including the authority to arrest, will be further discussed with the government,” Mahfudz said.  

Although BIN head Sutanto said the agency recognizes that the police have the authority to arrest suspects, intelligence personnel should also be given such authority, especially when they detect terror threats in areas where it may be difficult to contact police, Sutanto said.  

“For example, if intelligence personnel detect a terrorist threat in a border area from a separatist or subversive group, we must prevent it. We often find that it’s not easy to contact police personnel to perform the arrest. So we must perform it ourselves and coordinate with police later,” he said.  

Sutanto acknowledged the human rights concerns, but gave his assurance that the authority would not be misused.  

“All personnel must be reminded of human rights principles so they won’t perform arrests arbitrarily. I assure you that if we use this authority, it will be to enforce the law,” Sutanto said.  

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), however, maintained that such powers cannot be given to intelligence agencies.  

“This [power] should be limited to law-enforcement agencies like the police or the prosecutors office,” Kontras chairman Haris Azhar told the Jakarta Globe.  

“The principle of intelligence gathering is to preserve peace and enforce people’s right to security. However, we have seen time and time again that in practice, intelligence is utilized as a political tool in favor of certain political elites,” he said.  

Mahfudz said that though the intelligence bill was high-priority legislation, lawmakers won’t rush the deliberation process.  

Ramadhan added that since the bill would likely spark public controversy, the deliberation process would likely take years to finish and the proposed changes may not be implemented.  

“I think most House factions still reject the idea of giving the authority [to arrest without evidence]. Almost all of us still hold by our previous agreement that intelligence cannot have direct contact with the object,” Ramadhan said.