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Jakarta Post

Bambang apologizes for police failures

Amid an uproar over allegedly suspicious bank accounts held by several top officers, National Police chief Gen

Bagus BT Saragih (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, July 2, 2010

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Bambang apologizes   for police failures

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mid an uproar over allegedly suspicious bank accounts held by several top officers, National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri apologized for police shortcomings during a speech on the force’s 64th anniversary.

“As National Police chief, I apologize for weaknesses that stop the police from giving our best. I understand that public expectations are too high,” Bambang said in a speech marking Bhayangkara
Day, the National Police anniversary, at the Mobile Brigade headquarters in Kelapa Dua, Depok, West Java, on Thursday.

He called on all police officers to do the same.

“All of us surely haven’t given our best yet. Accept public criticism with respect and wisdom. Use the criticism for introspection.”

“I order all members of the police force to stand strong — as strong as the rocks in the sea — as true police officers, whatever we have to face.”

“Can you do that?” Bambang said.

“Yes!” exclaimed police officers at the ceremony.

Police have recently been plagued by allegations of case brokering and misconduct in several cases, such as that of former tax official Gayus Tambunan, who implicated high-ranking police officers, prosecutors, a judge and several attorneys in a money-laundering case.

Recently, Tempo magazine published an article about implausibly-large bank accounts held by several police generals.

Bambang said the bank account issue had disturbed him during the past few weeks.

“The issue about suspicious bank accounts was first made public in 2003. Somehow it appears again today. How come? What’s behind that?” he said.

Police failed to make good on their reform agenda and have shown no serious efforts to dispel rumors about the accounts since 2003, observers, experts and activists agree.

The police force’s main problem is a failure to gain public trust, said Mufti Makarim, executive director of the Institute for Defense Security and Peace Studies.

“As part of the their Grand Strategy, police vowed to regain the public trust by the end of this year. But we can see the public’s trust in the force is currently at a very low level,” he said.

Al-Araf, program director of Imparsial, a human rights NGO, said police reform had been stagnating.

“They can be considered successful in combating terrorism, although there are also human rights issues. On the other hand, they have seriously failed to tackle internal corruption,” he said.

Usman Hamid, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, sent an anniversary message to police by asking officers to remember late Gen. (ret.) Hoegeng Imam Santoso.

Hoegeng, National Police chief from 1968 to 1971, is remembered as Indonesia’s most virtuous police chief.

Gen. Bambang said police must stick to its Grand Strategy II, which outlines targets for police reform to achieve by 2014.

“By the end of 2014, the public must find no more case brokering, no more judicial mafia, no more case fabrication,” Bambang said.

During the ceremony, Bambang also gave medals and honors to 124 police officers.

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