President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s order for National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri to investigate the extraordinarily fat accounts of 21 senior police officers is completely unsatisfactory.
The order was made one week after the issue had spread through the media like wild fire, following Tempo magazine’s revelation of identities of officers who had allegedly amassed enormous fortunes from questionable sources.
In fact, the story about the officers’ accounts had been circulating for several months, but no competent sources or officials had previously had the courage to go on the record to state names or amounts officers had stashed.
When Yudhoyono eventually intervened it was after the polemic had begun to snowball, and after the police had threatened last week to launch a criminal investigation against Tempo, a news magazine that commands respect for its investigative reporting. Tempo’s offices were firebombed by unidentified men on Tuesday.
But as we saw in the recent clash between the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the President was acting like a fire fighter. He came to the rescue, but only once the conflagration had started and smoke had become suffocating.
The truth is, Yudhoyono should have stepped in months ago when the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) first leaked data to the media about the suspicious accounts of police officers.
It is simply flabbergasting that Yudhoyono supported the police chief’s claim that the fabulously large savings of these officers is an “internal issue” to be handled by the police force independently, thus throwing his weight behind Gen. Bambang’s insistence on conducting an internal investigation.
Gen. Bambang has vehemently rejected public demand for an independent investigation. How can he expect the public to believe in the results if the National Police, widely perceived to be one of the most corrupt institutions in Indonesia, is investigating its own officers?
Earlier this month, an internal investigation came out with a clean bill for one of the richest officers, Insp. Gen. Budi Gunawan, who sits on a Rp 95 billion fortune as a leaked official document shows, telling the public that he had gotten all the money through absolutely legal means.
Our main objection to such an internal investigation is the lack of transparency it would entail. Such an investigation, for example, would not allow independent observers to see what happens when police question their own colleagues. The problems with “self investigation” need no explanation. Just look at how corruption has thrived, despite the fact that each ministry and state institution has its own internal auditors and inspectorate.
All those who wish to see an end to corruption should press for the KPK to take over these investigations. While many of the commission’s investigators are also police officers, “borrowed” from their headquarters, at least we could expect the KPK to uphold professionalism and remain transparent in its investigations.
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