TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Editorial: Elusive police reform
Regardless of the controversy surrounding President Joko âJokowiâ Widodoâs decision on the National Policeâs change of guard, the political move should lead to total reform within the law enforcement agency, which has undoubtedly remained elusive
Change Size
R
egardless of the controversy surrounding President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's decision on the National Police's change of guard, the political move should lead to total reform within the law enforcement agency, which has undoubtedly remained elusive.
Such resistance to reform, or borrowing Jokowi's campaign tagline 'mental revolution', clearly transpires in the police force's full support for the legal measures that National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan is taking to resist his implication in a corruption case. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has named Budi a suspect and has started questioning a number of police officers related to the case.
The KPK has found that Budi amassed Rp 95 billion (US$7.6 million), allegedly from bribery and gratuities, including bribes paid by officers when he was head of the Career Development Bureau at the National Police headquarters from 2004 to 2006.
The National Police filed on Tuesday a pretrial petition with the South Jakarta District Court to challenge the KPK's decision to declare Budi a suspect, only one day before the House of Representatives interviewed him to measure his merit after the President named him the sole candidate for the top cop post. On Wednesday, Budi filed the same report to the Attorney General's Office, calling the KPK's move legally flawed.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Ronny F. Sompie said Budi deserved the police force's legal assistance, but this statement simply reflects the spirit of the corps, if not blind loyalty. There is a fallacy in the National Police's defense of Budi, because as a beneficiary of the state budget, the institution is spending taxpayers' money to defend an officer accused of a criminal act that enriched himself.
Or perhaps the police force's show of solidarity for Budi indicates a state of fear among the elite in the law enforcement agency that, after finishing its business with Budi, the KPK will turn to other generals. Such anxiety is understandable as the KPK has not produced much progress in its long-standing investigation into fat bank accounts belonging to a number of police generals, including Budi.
Sooner or later, Budi will face justice and the KPK should not waste any chance to hunt down other police generals named on the list provided by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, PPATK.
President Jokowi should not let the Budi case trigger another stand-off between the KPK and the police force, as the nation has already witnessed twice. The police criminalized two KPK deputies after the antigraft body named then National Police detective chief Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji a suspect in 2009, and besieged the KPK office when the commission arrested former National Police traffic director Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo in 2012.
As the direct superior of the police force, Jokowi must ask the police to respect the KPK, as he himself did when he announced the postponement of Budi's inauguration on Friday. The KPK findings should give Jokowi justification to complete police reform.
This time around, we do not expect the popular President to make another mistake.
