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bservers have advocated President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to prioritize his anticorruption campaign in 2012 within the two law-enforcement institutions that came under intense public scrutiny last year: the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).

Notoriously known as among the most corrupt institutions in the country, observers claimed bureaucratic reform within the police and the AGO still lacked concrete results, as the two institutions took turns in making headlines in connection to various controversial cases throughout 2011.

Last year, the police were alleged to have been involved in deadly shootings in the provinces of Papua, Lampung and West Nusa Tenggara — events in which police officers were suspected of siding with private mining and plantation companies instead of local citizens.

Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) chairman Neta S. Pane said police officers took sides with the private companies because of corruption acts allegedly committed by police regional chiefs. The regional police chiefs, Neta argued, might have been “funded” by those companies by way of illicit gratuities.

“From the shootings, we can see that police’s inclination toward private companies is really substantial. This is mainly caused by two things: first, is the weak internal control within the police, and second, is that the regional police regional chiefs have actually received something from those private companies,” Neta said on Sunday.

IPW recorded that police officers shot 98 locals in 2011, 18 of whom were dead.

Beside police, the AGO also received stern criticism in 2011, following its failure to implement bureaucratic reforms and curb corruption within the institution.

Despite claiming that his institution had successfully prevented Rp 181.75 billion (US$20.04 million) in state losses in 2011 (not Rp 27 trillion as it had previously reported), Attorney General Basrief Arief admitted on Friday that the institution he led had failed to perform well in law enforcement.

The AGO had punished 206 prosecutors for disciplinary breeches in 2011, Basrief said, adding that this number had increased significantly compared to 2010.

Among the controversial cases implicating the AGO last year were the multi-million rupiah blackmail allegations against prosecutors at the State Prosecutors Offices at Takalar and Cibinong.

Hari Sutopo, a prosecutor at the Lamongan Prosecutor’s Office, also made headlines in November after allegedly impregnating a woman who was convicted in one of his cases.

Choky Ramadhan from the Society of Justice Observation argued it was imperative for President Yu-dhoyono to clean up corrupt law-enforcement institutions, such as the AGO, as the priority for the 2012 anticorruption campaign.

Choky argued that the President should directly order Attorney General Basrief to impose more severe punishments on prosecutors who violate disciplinary rules.

“If there was a prosecutor who commits illicit deeds, [Basrief] should not only punish the prosecutor; but also his supervisor,” Choky said on Sunday.

“The control system will be greatly increased as the consequence. State Prosecutor heads will tighten their control of subordinates because they are afraid to be discharged, while the prosecutors will fear committing illicit deeds, as they have more eyes watching them,” he added.

Emerson Yuntho, a researcher at Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), criticized the AGO for its generosity in issuing letters to order the halt of investigations (SP3) last year.

He argued that AGO’s issuance of SP3 letters in three high-profile corruption cases in 2011 had put Yudhoyono’s commitment to battling corruption at stake. (sat)