The Constitution of Indonesia (1945) establishes the structure and powers of the government. Articles 12 and 22 grant the President authority to declare a state of emergency and issue regulations in lieu of laws, until the next meeting of the legislature. Article 28 recognizes the freedoms of expression, association, and assembly, and qualifications on those freedoms were reduced by the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment also added provisions guaranteeing due process, private property rights, human rights and equality before the law to all citizens.
Since the Bali bombings of October 2002, the Government of Indonesia has implemented several laws regarding national security and terrorism.
The first is the Anti-Terrorism Law No. 15/2003, which provides a broad definition of terrorism (Article 6); allows a suspect to be detained without trial for up to 6 months (Article 25 para 2); permits investigators to use intelligence reports as evidence when conventional evidence is deemed insufficient (Article 26 para 2); and allows investigators to intercept telephone conversations to obtain sensitive information (Article 31).
Second is the Law No. 17/2011 on State Intelligence, which confers broad powers on authorities to intercept and surveil communications involving activities that threaten national interests and security (Article 31, 32 & 34). The law also outlines punishments for persons found to have intentionally stolen, revealed or leaked intelligence secrets (Article 44 & 45).
Additionally, there are several laws regulating terrorist financing and money laundering in the country. They are the Anti-Money Laundering Law No. 8/2010, Law No. 5/2002 Concerning the Crime of Money Laundering and the Elucidation Act on Money Laundering Criminal Act 2002. The Anti-Money Laundering Law of 2010 permits the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre to examine a greater range of documents and to freeze bank accounts suspected to be involved in suspicious financial transactions.
Other security law legislation includes the Prevention and the Suppression of Terrorist Financing Law No. 9/2013, which allows government officials to freeze and seize assets financing suspected terrorists (Article 8(5)), and the Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 1/2002 on Combating Criminal Acts of Terrorism, which provides a definition of criminal acts of terrorism.
At present, there is also a National Security Bill, which, if passed, would introduce a broad definition of “national threat” (Article 1) and devolve the authority to determine perils to “national development” from national to regional government (Section 6).