Transnational Organized Crime: An Indonesian Perspective Muhammad Mustofa (University of Indonesia)
By and large, to discuss crime problems should be able to provide bases for policies leading to the reduction of crime. Such a discussion should also be based on a comprehensive understanding of the problem and supported with scientific evidence. In this sense discussing transnational organized crime in Indonesia lead to some problems. Firstly, the study of transnational organized crime, in Indonesia has received relatively little attention from academic. The lack of interest in studying organized crime particularly affected by methodological problem in gathering valid data for supporting the argument. Hobbs (1995) has comprehensively discussed such problems which were confronted by social scientists in studying organized crime (See, Meguire, Morgan, Reiner, 1995:442-444). Secondly, defining organized crime is another problem especially when the definition should be brought into the legal dimension.
Based on the problems mentioned initially, this paper will discuss the phenomenon of transnational organized crime in an Indonesian perspective simply supported by secondary data provided by appropriate governmental agencies and some journalistic reports that should not be regarded as scientific data. Such data will be used to put forward the seriousness of transnational organized crime which involves some Indonesians as offenders as well as victims and suggest for more appropriate international cooperation in dealing with the problem.
The definition of organized crime used in this paper is “ association of small group of people who are organized, loosely or structurally , illegally or legally, for the execution of a certain type of crime or other type of action which harm the society”. This definition actually is a bridging definition, combining definition of organized crime used by Lindesmith (1941), Sutherland and Cressey (1978), on one hand, that limit the definition on a small group of people who are organized loosely ,professional in the execution of crime. On the other hand, the definitions of organized crime adopted by the (American) President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (1975) (See Kadish, 1983), and by Sellin (1963) refers to business enterprises organized for the purpose of making economic gain through illegal activities. Using such a definition will facilitate us to the discussion of the extent of trasnational organized crime in Indonesia, because the organized crime in Indonesia could be categorized whether as loose organization, structured organization, illegal organization, or legal organization.
Some of the most serious transnational organized crime in Indonesian perspective which will be discussed in this paper are: drug trafficking, labor force smuggling, piracy, and illegal fishing in the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). These phenomena covered some Indonesian as offenders as well as victims, whilst the organizations could be legal or illegal, structured and unstructured. In terms of the international conspiracy, it could be limited as simply transborder conspiracy or it has been a world wide (transnational) conspiracy.
Drug trafficking is a form of transnational organized crime, because it must be organized and involve various nationalities of the offenders. The trend of seriousness of the drug trafficking in terms of the amount of evidence seized by The Indonesian Customs 1996-1998 seemed to increase, as shown in the table 1 below.
Table 1 Evidence of the amount of drug seized by The Indonesian Customs 1996-1998
TYPES OF DRUGS 1996 1997 1998 REMARKS NARCOTICS Heroine 1.844 5.640 15.216 in Kg Morphine -- 0.320 5.380 in Kg Opium -- 1.620 -- in Kg Straw of Papaver -- 2.200 -- in Stems Cocaine 0.275 2.500 -- in Kg Marihuana 0.20 0.274 64 in Kg Hashish 2.050 -- -- in Kg PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES Ecstasy 300,052 130,136 993 in Tablets Methyl amphetamine 0.444 0.115 5.185 in Kg ATS 78.290 -- -- in Kg Ephedrine -- 1.510 -- in Kg Diazepam 30 -- 106,650 in Tablets Source: Indonesian Police 1999
Most of the drugs seized by the Indonesian Customs above seem to impress that Indonesia was simply a market for the transnational drug trafficking organization. However, in 1999 The National Indonesian Police revealed that in terms of Ecstasy Substance the operation of Indonesian organized crime has increased from simply distributing the substance in Indonesia to producing and exporting it to other countries. Whilst the involvement of foreigners in this case can be viewed in Table 2 below which reveals that the number of foreigners arrested by the police is relatively constant but in terms of their countries (continents) of origin seems to change.
Table 2 Foreigners suspected in drugs cases arrested by police 1996-1998
CONTINENT OF ORIGIN 1996 1997 1998 Africa 1 20 18 A s i a 22 19 5 Australia 4 1 4 America 3 - 7 Europe 18 7 15 T O T A L 48 47 49 Labor force smuggling as another type or organized crime is better viewed as transborder organized crime involving Indonesian and Malaysian offenders. They were illegally sent labor force (usually unskilled labor) from Indonesia to Malaysia who will be employed in the plantation fields or in the construction sites. The mode of operations of this type of organized crime can be categorized into three modus. Firstly, Indonesian offenders brought some labors with a small boat, entering the Malaysian territory illegally and the labors smuggled will be picked up by the Malaysian counterpart and supplied them to the black labor market. The labor force have no appropriate documents for international transportation, such as passport and working permit visa. The second modus, the offenders smuggled the labor force into Malaysian territory with fake passport and fake visa. The third, the offenders send the labor force legally into Malaysian territory, with legal passport but not supported with working permit visa. The labor force were sent as tourist but actually they were then employed illegally.
Piracy in South East Asia as another type of transnasional organized crime was regarded by the shipping industry as the most serious. South East Asia was regarded as “piracy risk area”, especially the Strait of Malacca and the Singapore Strait. The offenders were suspected mostly Indonesians, because after they executed the crime, they flight into Indonesian territory. Jon Vagg (1995) based on International Maritime Organization (IMO) data revealed that they were waved of pirate attacks between 1990 -1992. Then they suddenly ceased. However, as has been published on IMO Circular, between 1995 - August 1999, they were some piracy cases reported existed in Indonesian territory as shown in table 3 below.
Table 3 Piracy Cases in Indonesia Territory 1995 - 1999 (August)
YEAR ON THE SEA IN PORT TOTAL 1995 9 14 23 1996 4 40 44 1997 16 29 45 1998 15 18 33 1999 15 25 40 Source: IMO Circular
The dimension of transnational organized crime in piracy phenomenon is also revealed by the news in Kompas Daily 1 November 1999 that reported that 10 Indonesians were arrested by the China
’s Police in Shantou, Guangdong Province because they have been suspected pirate Siam Xianxai (name of the ship) a Thailand tanker ship in Singapore territory. The pirates destroyed the original ship documents and change the name of the ship to be Zhengyang No. 1.The last transnational organized crime discussed in this paper involves legal organization and Indonesia as a country mostly becomes the victim of the crime. According to the Minister of Maritime Exploration of the new Indonesian Government, Indonesia has lost at least 4 billion US Dollar every year because of illegal fishing in Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone. The minister stated that such illegal fishing involves some Indonesians (individually as well as institutionally) that manipulate fishing license to Thailand and Taiwan fishery (Rakyat Merdeka Daily, 1 November 1999).
Each of the transnational organized crime described above posses different dimension in terms of its causes and its legal consequences thus it will need different prevention strategy, different punishment or rehabilitation policy, as well as different type of international co-operations. In dealing with drug trafficking and drug consumption problem Indonesia has published tougher regulations in 1997. Beside that Indonesia have involved in international co-operation in dealing with drug , i.e. US DEA, ONCB Thailand, CNB Singapore, AFP Australia, The Netherland Police, BKA Germany. However, no co-operation has been built with any African countries in order to anticipate the increasing number of African drug traffickers arrested.
The labor force smuggling as transborder organized crime most likely affected by the fact that there is a gap of prosperity between Indonesia and Malaysia, whereas Malaysia is a more prosperous country than Indonesia. In Malaysia there are a lot of position vacant in the plantation fields and construction sites which seem less attractive to the local labor force, whilst Indonesia has large amount of labor force who are looking for jobs but facing the lack of job opportunity in Indonesia. It is a form of the law of supply and demand in economy. In terms of legal dimension it involves immigration law and occupational law which need different agencies for co-operation in dealing with this problem.
The piracy problem posses a different terminology which is adopted internationally and locally in Indonesia. According to the United Nation Convention on the High Seas (1958) and Convention on Law of the Sea (1982) piracy was defined as “ an attack mounted for private ends on a ship, involving violence, illegal detention of persons or property, or the teft or destruction of goods (See Vagg, 1995). This definition could not be applied inside a territorial limit of a nation. The International Maritime Bureau of The International Chambers of Commerce defined piracy simply to “any act of boarding any vessel with the intent to commit theft or other crime and with the capability to use force in furtherance of the act” (Vagg, 1995). As the piracy problem involves shipping industry, export and import trade, insurance, banking etc., thus the international co-operation should involve them all.
Eventhough in the case of illegal fishing in Indonesian territory, Indonesia is the most victimized one, the fundamental problem is posed by Indonesia for its lack of machinery in enforcing Exclusive Economic Zone and hence it needs different type of international cooperation to solve the problem.
Finally, based on the description above, it seem that the causation of transnational organized crime in Indonesia are multidimensional. So, in order to obtain effective international co-operations in dealing with such crime, the co-operation should not rely on simply a legal aspect but should be broaden into multidimensional aspects which are appropriate with the root of the problem.
REFERENCES Hobbs, D. (1995) “Professional and Organized Crime in Britain”, in M. Maguire, R. Morgan, R. Reiner (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, Oxford : Clarendon Press.
Kadish, S.H. (1983) (Ed) Encyclopaedia of Crime and Justice, Vol. 3, New York: The Free Press.
Kompas Daily, 1 November 1999
Rakyat Merdeka Daily, 1 November 1999
Sellin, T. (1963), “Organized Crime; Business Enterprise”, The Annals 347, pp.12-19.
Vagg, J. (1955) “Rough Seas? Contemporary Piracy in South East Asia”, Brit. J. Criminology, Vol. 33, No. 1.