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Roles, duties and functions of the Indonesian National Police Attaché Or Liaison Officer

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Roles, duties and functions of the Indonesian National Police Attaché

Or Liaison Officer [1]

By

Eko SUDARTO[2]

Introduction

The relationship between the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand in 2014 has entered the age of 64[3]. Both ASEAN founding countries have felt the need to expand and strengthen cooperation, so as to bring changes for the better and mutually beneficial. It is recognized that the development of science and technology today not only brings positive impact, but also the negative impact that raisesits own challenges, in particular the problems of transnational crime. It requires seriousness in developing cooperative relationships in the field of securityand law enforcement, in particular for the police cooperation between two countries.

The Indonesian Foreign Policy aims to participate maintaining world peace by sending Indonesia Police Personnel in various field of missionsunder the United Nations, a humanitarian mission to disaster-stricken countries, also by deploying several liaison officers (Indonesia National PoliceAttaché) throughout its representation in the world. And the deployment of Indonesia police personnel in the Kingdom of Thailand is the seriousness of the Government of Republic Indonesia in the bilateral relations.

This paper written intends to meet the demands of the CPG (German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and GoodGovernance) for providing a snapshot of the author as the 4th Indonesia National Police attaché or Police Liaison Officer for the Kingdom of Thailand inthe period of 2011 to 2014.

Background

One of the fundamental principles of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as enshrined in the Bangkok Declaration of 8 August 1967 was “strengthening the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian Nations.” ASEAN policies, plans, strategies and activities revolve around this principle.

ASEAN founding fathers aware that globalization, technological advancement and greater mobility of people and resources across national borders, transnational crime has become increasingly pervasive, diversified and organized. The ASEAN region has to deal with many new forms of organized crimes that transcend national borders and political sovereignty such as terrorism, new types of drug abuse and trafficking, innovative forms of money laundering activities, arms and peoples smuggling, trafficking in women and children, piracy and other massive model of crimes.

Recognizing the urgency to tackle transnational crimes from the regional dimension, the Philippines hosted the inaugural meeting of the ASEAN Ministers of Interior/Home Affairs on Transnational Crimes on 20 December 1997 in Manila. The highlight of the meeting was the signing of the ASEAN Declaration on Transnational Crimes by the Ministers. The Declaration also established the basic framework for regional cooperation on fighting transnational crime. Accordingly, the ASEAN Ministers Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC) was to convene once in every two years to coordinate activities of relevant bodies such as the ASEAN Senior Officials on Drug Matters (ASOD) and annual meeting on the ASEAN Chiefs of National Police (ASEANAPOL).

The Declaration also outlined the following initiatives for regional cooperation on tackling transnational crime. One important point among 8 (eight) initiatives is “to encourage Member Countries to consider assigning Police Attaches and/or Police Liaison Officers in each other’s capital in order to facilitate cooperation for tackling transnational crimes”.

Implementation

Implementation of the duties and functions of the Police Attaché or Liaison Officer at The Kingdom of Thailand has great significance for the development of cooperation between the two countries. As an addition that not only the both countries  are important position in the scope of cooperation among ASEAN, but also the geographical  position of both countries are very strategic in the world. This strategic positions of course impact to the various form of criminality, especially transnational crime.

On daily activities tasks, Indonesia National Police Attaché or Liaison Officer shall be fully responsible to the Chief of the Indonesian National Police, cg. The Head of International Relations Division in Jakarta and in the implementation of activities in the accreditation country is under the directcoordination of the Indonesian Ambassador in Thailand. In addition, the Indonesian National Police Attaché has a strong coordination with local police, in this regards to the Royal Thai Police (Foreign Affairs Division) and has to build up a strong relation to its counterpart as partners of foreign police andother law enforcement agencies who are members of FANC (Forum Anti-Narcotics and Crime) in Thailand.

In the task of strengthening police cooperation and relations between the two countries, efforts were made through coordination andcommunication patterns. Such cooperation as well as developing the capacity of the police personnel of Royal Thai Thailand. Both sides continued toimplement various cooperation agenda, including the exchange of personnel to conduct education and training both at the JCLEC (Jakarta Center Law Enforcement Community) in Semarang, Indonesia and ILEA in Bangkok, Thailand. The program is carried out as an effort to improve the knowledge andskills of police personnel between the two countries in terms of Combating Terrorism and transnational crimes in the ASEAN region.

The role of a liaison officer or Police Attaché as universal norm is a person that liaises between two organizations to communicate and coordinate their activities by serving as an official government between both countries for senior officials. (International Standardization Council-ISO; 2012)

As explained by “Cloud Security Alliance: Role and responsibilities for Liaison Officer, April 2012”, in this regards the brief responsibilities of Indonesia Police Attaché or Liaison officer for Thailand are as follow:

  • Indonesia National Police Attaché or Liaison officer shall act under the authority of the Indonesia Government to coordinate and control any related standards activities to the Kingdom of Thailand as the accreditation country.
  • Indonesia National Police Attaché or Liaison shall facilitate communication between the interest of two government organization (especially related to Indonesian National Police and Royal Thai Police). In doing so, the liaison officer or Indonesia National police attaché shall provide to the organization on purposes, principles and projects.
  • Indonesia National Police Attaché or Liaison officer is expected to have an up-dated knowledge of information related to Indonesia interest at the accreditation area, including project leadership and the stages of these projects.
  • Indonesia National Police Attaché or Liaison officer and the others are expected to be active in the liaison organization, built-up a good coordination and their key meetings. In doing so, all of the Police Attaché or Liaison officer in Thailand established a forum namely FANC (Forum Anti Narcotic and Crime) for they are social gathering and other related bilateral meetings.
  • Indonesia National Police Attaché or Liaison officer is responsible for a coherent between two core organization responding on related programs and projects. In the most agenda related to coordinate activities of the relevant bodies such as the ASOD, ASEANAPOL, AMMTC, SOMTC, Bali Process and so on during goes held in Thailand.
  • Indonesia National Police Attaché or Liaison officer will support strategic partnerships by providing quality advices, facilitating effective knowledgemanagement and providing technical assistance to project planning, coordinating, monitoring and reporting in any collaboration.
  • Indonesia National Police Attaché or Liaison officer shall secure its country premises and assist and support citizens related to their problem and interest in the accreditation country (especially protecting their sovereignty).

Finally, it can be concluded that up to now the relation between two countries has been well and going on in harmony by having as follow:

  • Task Implementation of Indonesia
    National Police Attaché or liaison officer at The Kingdom of Thailand during the period of assignment goes well. It was showing by the implementation of harmonization in the various fields of cooperation between the police of two countries, such as in the form ofcapacity building, exchange of information, cooperation in the investigation and Transnational Crime reduction and prevention.
  • Deployment of Indonesia
    National Police Attaché in Thailand is a very important addition to the speed in delivering a wide range of issues of policecooperation between the two countries, especially to facilitate a variety of coordination and communication between the two organizations PoliceState.
  • As part of the reciprocal principle, it would be much more effective if the Thai police side put its Police Attaché or Liaison Officer in Indonesia that has been done by Malaysia, Singapore and others countries in Jakarta.

References

Alan Castle, Transnational Organized Crime and International Security, Working Paper, No. 19, Institute of International Relations the University of British Columbia, November 1997.

  1. William and D. Vlassic,Combating Transnational Crime Special Issue of Transnational Organized Crime,4 Autumn/Winter.

Ralf Emmer’s, The Securitization of Transnational Crime in ASEAN, Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies Singapore, Working Paper No. 39, 2002.

Paper, ASEAN’s Effort in Combating Terrorism and Transnational Crime, Honolulu, AS, 16 November, 2004.

Handbook on Selected, ASEAN Political Document.

Printing paper, ASEAN Cooperation in Combating Transnational Crime, ASEAN Secretariat, and February 2005.
ASEAN online, www.aseansec.org, KOMPAS, 7 Augustus 2004.

[1]   This essay intend to fulfill to the CPG (German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good

Government) magazine.

[2]   Police Senior Superintendent at International Relation Division, NCB Interpol Indonesia-Jakarta.

[3]  Since the establishing of diplomatic relation between two countries.

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