By: Sandy Arifin)*
The disinformation between government agencies on weapons procurement has again become a trending topic in the media lately. Previously, media outreach was enlivened by the polemical issue of the purchase of 5,000 illegal weapons by non-military government agencies. Problems arose from the Speech of the TNI Commander, General Gatot Nurmantyo in the presence of retired Armed Forces Commander, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, and Army High Officers in the event ‘Gathering the Commander of TNI and Retired TNI’ at TNI Headquarters Cilangkap, East Jakarta, late last month.
Then the last trending topic is the issue is difference opinion of TNI vs Polri, related to the purchasing of 5,932 ammunition weapon type Stand-alone Grenade Launcher (SAGL) ordered by Polri Brimob Corps. The disagreements between the TNI and the Police resulted in the detention of live ammunition which was considered deadly by the TNI and not in accordance with the existing rules. The police then issued an open statement that the weapons and weapons would be used to effect a shock to a suspect in a arrest operation.
This dissident is only a matter of missinterpretation among government agencies in perceiving allotments and the need for weapons for national security. The positive intention of the Police to raise the standard of weapon quality for the improvement of national security seems to be contradicting assumption from the TNI that the weaponry is a military weapon that the TNI doesn’t own. Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal Affairs and Security RI has at least attempted to mediate the discomfort between the TNI and the Police with the statement that regulation is the only factor that must be corrected to avoid a repeat of a similar case.
This should not be an open debate in public, TNI and Polri should maintain each other’s image and dignity in the eyes of society. Open statements that tend to be interpreted as an act of mutual attack should not be shown to audiences and in front of the media, because the politicization of the issue becomes very common in cases like this.
In line with the rise of media coverage, netizens are also busy discussing the dissident in social media. In addition, there are indications of attempts by certain individuals or interest groups that provoke the issue to their interests, potentially leading to national security instability. This condition is certainly not ideal, considering Indonesia will welcome the coming of the political year, the election of head region 2018 and the 2019 presidential election. If fellow state security agencies TNI and Police are not synergistic to secure the political agenda, the potential conflict and the opportunity of opposition groups to undermine the sovereignty of NKRI will open wide.
It should be a matter of inter-agency agencies government settled by sitting together while sipping coffee and eating dishes, to just discuss or resolve the problem in accordance with the principle of deliberation and consensus, not with public opinion war. In addition to avoiding polemics, synergy measures are very effective to maintain and even improve the image and dignity of the government in the eyes of society.
Another lesson that the public can follow is the strength of the government in maintaining credibility to ward off and protect itself from the efforts of the provocation of individual interest groups. So that people are educated and got literacy on how to deal with the problem and sorting information so as not easily provoked.
)* The author is junior researcher of CIDISS