T

he National Police Commission (Kompolnas) has stood by its decision to nominate the newly-installed head of the National Police'€™s detective division, Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, a controversial figure at the center of a standoff between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the police, as the National Police chief.

Kompolnas decided to proceed with the nomination of Budi despite mounting opposition as a result of his thin resume as a provincial police chief and his alleged human rights abuse in the arrest of KPK commissioner Bambang Widjojanto.

'€œWe have to include his name. How could someone lose his right [to be nominated as a public official] just because of public opinion?'€ Kompolnas commissioner Adrianus Meliala said on Saturday.

Budi meets all the administrative and legal requirements to be included in the list of police chief candidates.

However, police observers and experts, including Bambang Widodo Umar, a member of an independent team set up by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ to monitor the current KPK-police standoff, say that Budi lacks the experience of being at the helm of the police in a major province in Java or Sumatra.

Budi only served as police chief in Gorontalo, a relatively backwater province in the east of the country.

His three-year tour of duty there, which began in 2012, was cut short in 2013 in the midst of his ongoing investigation into a graft case implicating Gorontalo Governor Rusli Habibie and several provincial agency heads.

Kompolnas commissioner Syafriadi Cut Ali further defended Budi, saying there was no mandatory requirement to have served as a police chief in a major region.

'€œIt'€™s not a binding rule. The criteria are flexible and can be applied depending on the situation,'€ he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Budi'€™s former position as the head lecturer at the police'€™s Staff and Command School (Sespim), under the auspices of National Police education and training division chief Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, was enough to pad out his resume, Adrianus said.

'€œThe experience of leading the school is equivalent to leading a type A regional police command,'€ he said.

Budi'€™s claim to be the next top cop has also been undermined by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), which found that as a result of his orders, personnel from the National Police'€™s detective unit abused their authority in the arrest of the KPK'€™s Bambang by handcuffing him in front of his children.

National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Krisbiantoro said the arrest was a blatant abuse of power.

'€œWhen Budi Waseso arrested Bambang [Widjojanto], he ignored the procedure that required him to submit a SPDP [notification of commencement of investigation] to the Attorney General'€™s Office [before he could arrest Widjojanto],'€ he said on Friday.

Kompolnas once again defended Budi by questioning the impartiality of Komnas HAM.

'€œWe have to look at the matter objectively. What is this human rights violation that Komnas HAM is talking about? If someone is arrested, wherever it is in the world, he or she has to be handcuffed,'€ he said. '€œBut the problem is that the police here rarely do it.'€

Syafriadi said that if the police had not put a restraint on Widjojanto, he could have tried to run away.

'€œAnd if he got hit by a car when he tried to escape, who would get the blame?'€ he said.

President Jokowi is expected to announce his decision on the fate of Budi Gunawan'€™s previous nomination as National Police chief early next week after he returns from his tour of three ASEAN countries.

Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto has called on the KPK and the National Police not to take any drastic measures while Jokowi is away to prevent further escalation of the situation.

Meanwhile, supporters of Jokowi, identifying themselves as Pro Jokowi (Projo), have claimed that there are movements afoot to alienate Jokowi from the people.

'€œAs an impact of the KPK-police standoff, the President is now being pitted against the people,'€ chairman of Projo Budi Arie Setiadi said as quoted by Antara.