Newly appointed chief detective Insp. Gen. Ito Sumardi is committed to implementing internal reform within the National Police, whose image has been tarnished by the controversial Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) saga.
He said he would implement a zero tolerance approach to his colleagues allegedly involved in crime.
“After conducting internal consolidation, I will be targeting my own division.”
“I will investigate officials who are suspected of being involved in various crimes,” Ito told jour-
nalists.
“This, I believe, will be a great way to start fighting the so-called judicial mafia practices. Fighting these practises is one of my top priorities and will be conducted immediately,” he said.
In order to fight judicial mafia practices, Ito also vowed he would coordinate with other institutions as well as NGOs and the media.
“I will also seek coordination with our colleagues at the Attorney General’s Office [AGO] and the Supreme Court so that we can formulate thorough solutions to this problem,” he said.
“I will also open my door to our media friends and people from NGOs to provide us with information,” he added.
Ito, the National Police chief’s expert staff coordinator, was appointed on Tuesday to replace Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, who was demoted due to his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to sabotage
the KPK.
Human rights activists previously suspected that Susno was the figure pushing for the investigation of the two deputy KPK chairmen, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, for extortion, even though the police has failed to produce solid evidence against them.
Several activists argued that he became embroiled in the saga after his phone was wiretapped by KPK officials during their investigation of Bank Century.
Susno was recorded to have conducted conversations indicating that he had played a role in the investigation of the KPK chairmen.
However, Susno has denied such allegations, saying that he was examined by the police’s internal affairs division and had been declared innocent.
The new detective chief and dozens of other officials who have just received promotions are scheduled to be sworn in next Monday.
Adrianus Meliala, a criminologist from the University of Indonesia, commended Ito’s appointment as the new detective chief, saying that Ito has been widely known as one of the officials who would dare to initiate internal reform.
“Ito is known for his eagerness to make the necessary reforms within his divisions from his early days in the police force.
“We need this kind of quality in the next detective chief so he can bring the public’s expectations into reality,” Adrianus said.
In contrast to Adrianus, however, Neta S. Pane from Indonesian Police Watch said he was pessimistic about the National Police chief’s decision to choose Ito as the new chief detective, because according to him, Ito had not performed well during his career.
“We should remember that Ito has been plagued by rumors about his closeness to the illegal
logging mafia in Riau and also to local gamblers while he was Riau Police chief.
“What kind of output should we expect from a man of this kind of quality?” he asked.
Commenting on this, Ito said the rumors were baseless, as proven by a series of internal investigations.
Reiterating he was not receiving bribes from the gamblers in Riau, Ito claimed that he sternly fought against the gambling practices in the province during his time as police chief.
