Indonesia Moves to Expand Police Role in Civilian Government

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(Bloomberg) — Indonesia will allow police officers to legally hold civilian administrative positions, a move that could increase the role of security officials in government. 

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The parliament passed a bill Tuesday permitting police officers to take civilian or non-police posts if the positions are linked to policing duties, requested by a ministry or agency, or assigned by President Prabowo Subianto.

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The move formalizes an existing practice in the world’s fourth-most populous nation. Details will be spelled out in a government regulation.

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The Indonesian National Police needs to adapt to “increasingly complex security challenges,” said Minister of Law Supratman Andi Agtas, who added Prabowo backs the changes. Establishing “a more responsive and adaptive legal framework has become imperative to ensure that police can effectively exercise its functions and authority in line with contemporary demands and developments,” he added.

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The law revision comes as global investors are increasingly concerned about Prabowo’s more populist and interventionist agenda.

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Lawmakers last year fast-tracked a revised military law allowing more active service members to take government posts.

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Civil society groups, concerned that Prabowo, a former general, could allow Indonesia’s security apparatus to influence civilian government, have criticized the developments. 

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Critics say lawmakers are creating a new statutory route for police involvement in civilian governance after the Constitutional Court in November narrowed a loophole allowing active police officers to hold posts outside the force through assignments from the national police chief.

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During a Monday hearing, lawmaker I Wayan Sudirta from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle questioned whether the proposed provisions were consistent with reforms after the dictator Suharto’s regime that separated the police from the military. The existing police law says officers may hold posts outside the force only after resigning or retiring.

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Deputy Law Minister Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, though, said officers could still be required to resign from law enforcement jobs if the civilian position has no link to policing duties.

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Security officials already play roles in government. Senior police officers have been appointed to posts in ministries overseeing fisheries, trade, energy and mineral resources, and migrant workers protection. 

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Other parts of the bill deal with issues ranging from retirement age to officer training.

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