President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo reminded the leaders of the National Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) on Tuesday about their roles in ensuring national security, a situation that would support the pursuit of the country'€™s economic development goals.

Jokowi made the remarks in a speech during the opening session of the annual meeting of police and military leaders in Jakarta. It was the first time that Jokowi attended such a meeting since he took office in October last year.

'€œI have ordered [them] to maintain stability and security so that economic targets, the targets of economic growth and infrastructure development, can be reached,'€ Jokowi told the media after a closed-door opening session.

This year'€™s three-day leadership meeting is aimed at enhancing consolidation in launching Jokowi'€™s idea of a '€œrevolusi mental'€ or mental revolution.

The spokesman for the National Police, Sr. Comr. Rikwanto, said the police were ready to adopt the idea, saying that '€œno matter how great the police are, no matter how big the budget and infrastructure are, all of that is for serving the people and for enforcing the law'€.

Both police and military officials engaged in a joint discussion during the first day of the meeting. On the second and third days, the police and military will hold separate meetings.

Other than National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, who is now temporarily in charge of the tasks carried out by the police chief, and military commander Gen. Moeldoko, a number of the country'€™s top officials, like Coordinating Political, Law and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Chief Marciano Norman, Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi and State Secretary Pratikno, also attended the opening session.

'€œThe point [of the meeting] is to improve communications and cooperation. [Moreover] in particular cases, police [sometimes] ask for military assistance in carrying out their duties,'€ Badrodin said.

A memorandum of understanding covering a basic joint training program between the TNI and the police was also signed during the meeting, a program that is expected to build solidarity between the two corps, which would eventually reduce tensions, said Moeldoko.

Many believe that the two corps have a tense relationship caused by the number of clashes that have occurred between military personnel and police officers.

The latest series of violent clashes took place in Batam late last year. At that time, personnel from the police'€™s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) raided a suspected illegal fuel-storage facility that was allegedly backed by military personnel from the 134 Tuah Sakti infantry battalion. Four soldiers sustained gunshot wounds during the raid. After the incident, dozens of soldiers from Tuah Sakti rampaged through the Brimob headquarters, leaving one soldier dead and a local street vendor injured.

'€œIt is to build solidarity [between the two corps]. Don'€™t immediately jump into how to build synergy if [we] cannot build solidarity,'€ Moeldoko said, adding that the first training session would be conducted in Magelang, Central Java, this year.

During his press conference, Jokowi also said he underlined preventative measures in handling terrorism in his speech during the closed-door meeting.

'€œDo not let such incidents occur and then handle them [afterwards]. Prevention is the best [measure],'€ Jokowi said, adding that the police and military should improve their intelligence operations in seeking information to prevent terrorist acts.

The meeting was also held amid a rivalry between the police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which many believe was ignited by Jokowi'€™s previous decision to pick Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as his sole nominee for National Police chief.

The KPK immediately named Budi a graft suspect, a move that eventually forced Jokowi to drop Budi'€™s nomination and pick Badrodin as his new police chief nominee.

Two KPK leaders, Bambang Widjojanto and Abraham Samad, were later named suspects in various alleged crimes by the police and suspended from their official duties.

All police leaders attended the meeting, except Budi, who is the head of the Police Education Institute (Lemdikpol), Rikwanto said.

Rikwanto claimed that he did not know the reason behind Budi'€™s absence, but Badrodin said Budi was ill.

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