Jakarta-wapresri.go.id. Vice President Jusuf Kalla hoped the National Police could build a stronger power in the field of information and technology in a bid to respond quickly to the many conflicts triggered by social media.
The Vice President stated this when giving a lecture to the participants of the 2016 National Police Staff and Command School (Sespim Polri) at the Vice Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Monday (Aug. 29).
He further explained, the world has regarded social media as a ‘leader’ of rebellions and conflicts.
“Now the world revolution is without a leader. Facebook and other social media lead now take the position as the leader,” he said.
Today, the Vice President said, Indonesia has entered into an era where conflicts are arising triggered by the information spread in social media. This, he continued, also happened in overseas.
“The revolution in the Arab countries, for instance, had no leaders. It is social media that controlled them. The Iran Revolution still utilized tape recorder technology, riots in Tiananmen made use of facsimiles, but current revolution in many countries used faster and more advance technology,” said the vice President.
Therefore, he continued, to prevent the escalation of conflicts controlled by social media, the entire police force must have a good mastery of information technology.
In front of 150 participants attending the lecture, the Vice President said that as long as 71 years after the Indonesian independence, it is recorded there were 15 major conflicts in the country which killed more than 1,000 people.
However, Vice President said, we should be grateful as Indonesia is still in a stable condition regardless the conflicts.
“We should certainly be grateful that our nation has passed those great conflicts, although there are still frequent conflicts which are local, communal, and causing humanitarian problems,” he said.
To that end, Mr. Kalla invited and reminded the Sespim participants to prevent conflicts by realizing justice and peace. As one of the law enforcement officers, he added, the police have a great responsibility to maintain harmony.
The police, he argued, should grasp the core of the problems that cause a conflict since different conflicts will also need different ways of settlement. Conflict in Aceh, argued the Vice President, for instance, was not triggered by religious sentiment, but it is more due to injustice in the region. There is also a conflict that was allegedly preceded by a religious issue, he added, but it was apparently due to ideological factors.
The Vice President also reminded that the police themselves should give a good example to the community by not creating conflicts among them.