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National Police still perceived as corrupt and violent
A mother of two teenage boys, Mira, 40, wants the oldest to join the police once he graduates from high school, hopefully next year
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A mother of two teenage boys, Mira, 40, wants the oldest to join the police once he graduates from high school, hopefully next year.
"Most people here look up to police officers nowadays. They think it is better to become a police officer than a military soldier," Mira, a resident of the East Java regency of Magetan, told The Jakarta Post recently.
Relatives and friends told her it was unlikely a student from a normal family, like her son, would be admitted to the police academy. She found later that acceptance to the academy comes at a price.
Mira said police officers, acting as brokers, broke down the costs for her.
"It will cost my son Rp 200 million (US$21,500) to join the police academy and Rp 80 million to join the police cadet school," she said.
With her husband, a civil servant in the local administration, Mira is busy raising the money necessary to ensure her son can become a police officer. The family plans to sell a plot of land and seek loans.
Mira's case highlights a long-standing problem in the police recruitment process throughout the country, the external relations director of human rights monitoring group Imparsial, Poengky Indarti, said Tuesday.
She said the corrupt recruitment process created corrupt officers, as the new cops would try to recoup their money as soon as possible, by all possible means, including accepting bribes or embezzlement.
"Then, how can we expect the new generation of police officers to clean their squad if they enter the institution to seek profits. We demand that the President and the police chief focus on mending the recruitment process," Poengky said.
Imparsial, speaking in conjunction with the 62nd anniversary of the National Police, also views the police as the country's most violent institution.
"The attack on the National University (Unas) campus that resulted in the death of one student and the harsh treatment of protesters have proven that the police are still repressive and violent," Imparsial managing director Rusdi Marpaung said.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira acknowledged that some individual officers acted as brokers for people who wished to join the force.
"It does not involve the police institution. We have taken measures to eradicate the practice, including the recent arrest of a broker in West Java," Abubakar said.
He added that the police had done much to improve professionalism and uphold human rights.
"There have been thousands of protests and only one or two incidents involving the police," Abubakar said.
Imparsial called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and National Police chief Gen. Sutanto to change the police's "culture of violence" by introducing legal knowledge and human rights promotion into the police academy's curriculum.
