Thirteen years after the end of the New Order
era, the police had failed to reform the institution due to weak supervision
and lenient sanctions for criminal officers, Human rights group Imparsial said
Sunday.
“The dynamic of the reformation era has
apparently failed to contribute to forming a credible and professional police
force. The National Police reform program has been merely cosmetic and not
substantial,” Imparsial managing director Poengky Indarti said in a statement.
Imparsial addressed a number of police problems
that can be seen as indication of the force’s failure to reform: Police
brutality, involvement in illegal logging, involvement in judicial corruption
and case brokerage, corruption, political non-neutrality, sexual harassment,
violence against women and arbitrary detention.
Imparsial’s report said between 2005 and 2010
there were 135 cases of violence by police officers against civilians. There
were 49 criminal cases involving police officers between 2002 and 2010, while during
the same period there were 161 cases of arbitrary detention and treatment.
The NGO’s program director, Al Araf, said that
both external and internal supervision of the police was lax, with officers at
different levels tending to protect each other, causing impunity among
unscrupulous police officers.
“The police’s internal affairs division instead
serves as the place for ‘dirty’ officers to seek protection,” he said.
He also raised concerns about lenient punishment
for police officers involved in crimes. “Some officers were just demoted,
rather than dismissed from their posts,” Al Araf said.
The police had the slogan “to protect and serve
the public” but it had been very far from reality, Poengky said.
Imparsial suggested several points of
recommendation to improve the police reform program, including placing the
police under a specific department, rather than under the Presidential office,
to prevent political influence and allow for the establishment of a team to
supervise case investigations.
It also urged the government to accelerate the
completion of the amendment of the obsolete criminal code procedures that contained
many loopholes which the police could abuse for their own interests.
National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli
Amar said the police reform program had raised the force’s level of professionalism
to its highest level ever. “We are now very transparent and open to any kind of
input. If civil society finds any wrongdoings or mismanagement, please, inform
us,” he said. --JP
