Amid the COVID pandemic, Indonesia’s State Intelligence Agency (BIN) is asserting itself in unusual ways.
Writing in The Diplomat, Tangguh Chairil, a lecturer in security studies, says BIN’s role has expanded in the last three months.
BIN’s role is to conduct contact tracing to track the spread of COVID-19, as part of the early warning system as what an intelligence service should do. However, their has extended to everything related to the pandemic. On March 13, BIN announced to the public that they had made a modeling of the spread of COVID-19 which predicted that the peak would occur in May. On April 17, BIN donated medical equipment and medicines to the government’s Task Force. BIN established a medical intelligence unit – – which they did not have prior to the pandemic – and recruited medical personnel volunteers for handling the pandemic, who were inaugurated on April 22.
BIN has prepared rapid test mobile laboratories and conducted several tests in Jakarta, South Tangerang, Tangerang, Surabaya, and other areas. BIN delivered medical equipment aids to local governments. BIN has also sprayed disinfectants to several areas and educated the community on the dangers of coronavirus. On June 6, BIN again announced to the public that they predict that the number of cases will still increase – despite previously predicting it would peak in May. Finally, on June 12, BIN announced that they are coordinating the acceleration of COVID-19 medicine production.
Source: Indonesia’s Intelligence Service is Coming Out to Counter COVID-19 – The Diplomat
