Is there a more sinister reason behind SBY’s lack of toughness?

The common interest of the ruling political elite to have control of the police force in order to secure their interests is to be blamed for nurturing the police’s corrupt mentality and lack of professionalism, analysts say.

Bureaucratic hell: Driving license applicants queue for a form at the Jakarta Police’s license processing center on Jl. Daan Mogot on Monday. The police have recently introduced a new system they claim will phase out rampant bribing at the office, but police officers were still accepting money — typically Rp 400,000 (US$41) for a car driving license — to speed up the laborious process.JP/J. Adiguna

They say politicians have an interest to maintain power by preventing the police from digging into their crimes, which comes in exchange for allowing police generals to do almost whatever they wish without proper supervision.

“It’s like I scratch your back, you scratch mine. As long as the police remain a political tool, there won’t be any hope for reform,” said retired police officer Bambang Widodo Umar, who is currently a lecturer at the Indonesian Institute of Police Science.

Unlike in developed countries, the police force in Indonesia is under the auspices of the President, who appointed a single candidate to police chief in exchange for an
endorsement from legislators.

Bambang said because of the mutual political interests, it was obvious there was no serious attempt to set up an independent oversight agency to supervise and to punish police officers violating the force’s code of ethics or the law.

The National Police Commission (Kompolnas) is an agency supposedly tasked with supervising the police. However, the agency remains toothless — it has no authority to question a suspected corrupt officer nor hand down punishment.

The agency is chaired by the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs.

“As the police remain a pet of the ruling regime, it is difficult to hope for an overhaul in the police management system, let alone changing their corrupt mentality,” he said.

Lawmakers have also been reluctant to encourage police reform as they frequently call on police chiefs to support their families and interests when dealing with a case, or even to engineer a case against their opponents.

In some cases, lawmakers have even requested for a police chief to grant them police procurement projects.

“In exchange, the lawmakers will not harshly quiz the police chief during a hearing, and will not initiate stricter supervision,” said Kompolnas member Adnan Pandu Pradja. “It’s also obvious for the police chief to seek safety by complying with the demands of lawmakers.”

Both Adnan and Bambang have frequently called for the government and lawmakers to overhaul several legal instruments that would create a stricter external supervision of the police, a more independent institution, a better remuneration and appraisal system, transparent case handling and promotion of officers, as well as the elimination of several rights of the police.

The rights include a discretion for detaining a suspect based on subjective matters. This has been widely used by the police to extort the public.

President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono, however, does not see an urgent need for an overhaul of the police force’s management, praising the current police reform as
successful.

In a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Cipanas, West Java, on June 18, Yudhoyono said he disagreed with the suggestion that the police force had failed to reform itself, and any remaining bad apples did not represent the entire
institution.

“It is not true that there’s been no progress [in terms of reform]. There are numerous surveys indicating the success,” said Yudhoyono.

Yudhoyono said other results of the reform included the police’s success in the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, white-collar crime, street crime and public services for obtaining driving licenses.

He also said he believed Kompolnas did not require increased authority in supervising the police, adding that any violation committed by an officer could be sufficiently handled within the force.

“If there’s an officer violating the law, then he or she should be processed based on the existing law. If there’s corruption committed by an officer then it should be handled accordingly based on the current system,” he said.

Critics have said Yudhoyono’s reluctance to get strict with the police is attributable to speculation the President used the force to help secure votes during the 2009 legislative and presidential election.

“A lot of people said the mess within the police was down to the fact that the police chief was playing in politics and that he was not independent,” Adnan said.

Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri was appointed police chief by Yudhoyono in September 2008.

So far during Bambang’s tenure, several high-profile cases highlighting the police’s incompetency have been revealed, including an allegation the police engineered a criminal case against leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission.

The police also came into the spotlight when East Java police chief Insp. Gen. Herman Surjadi Sumawiredja admitted in March last year that he had been pressured by his superiors to drop an investigation into an allegation of vote rigging during the East Java governorship election.

However, the most shocking case centered on revelation uttered by former chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji about a case brokering syndicate within the National Police, involving several high-ranking generals.

The cases have erupted at a time when the police force is nearing a deadline for internal reform set in 2005 that aimed to win the
public trust.

Police chief Bambang has frequently cited difficulties in changing the corrupt mentality of police officers, requesting more time to gain the public trust.

Bambang’s statement has been interpreted by some as an admission of his inability to steer the police force onto the path of reform.

“He keeps saying that as though he has no control of the situation. This same statement was made by his seniors 10 years ago. As I don’t see any signs of the slightest effort to change the mentality [of police officers], I also don’t see the difficulties they are confronted with,” Bambang Widodo said.