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Editorial: In search of good cops

Regardless of the motives behind the latest major reshuffle within the National Police, there is a pressing need for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to stamp his authority over the law enforcement agency

The Jakarta Post
Sat, September 5, 2015

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Editorial: In search of good cops

R

egardless of the motives behind the latest major reshuffle within the National Police, there is a pressing need for President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to stamp his authority over the law enforcement agency.

The center of gravity is the replacement of Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso as the National Police the chief of the National Police'€™s Criminal Investigation Corps by Comr. Gen. Anang Iskandar, the current head of National Narcotics Agency (BNN). Based on a decree signed by National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti on Thursday, the two police generals will change places.

Budi'€™s substitution, Badrodin says, is a normal reassignment that also affects a number of police officers, including eight provincial police chiefs. But for many, the shake-up marks the end of mounting public uproar targeting Budi, whom they accuse of masterminding criminal investigations into anti-graft campaigners, notably former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chief Abraham Samad, deputy chief Bambang Widjojanto and investigator Novel Baswedan.

Reports about Budi'€™s rotation had circulated since Wednesday after Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, who is ex-officio chairman of the National Police Commission, held talks with Badrodin to follow up the results of Badrodin'€™s meeting with President Jokowi and Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Tuesday.

Without belittling civil society'€™s role in Budi'€™s exit from the third-most influential post within the police force, such as via a public petition through change.org, it was the general who put himself in trouble. He paved the way for his own departure following a controversial raid at the office of state port operator PT Pelindo II'€™s president director Richard Joost Lino last week.

At that time Budi, under the media spotlight, led National Police detectives in the search for documents that the police would need to prove alleged corruption in the company'€™s procurement of mobile cranes. Lino complained about the procedure, which he said reminded him of the police'€™s crackdown on terror suspects.

Kalla jumped to the defense of Lino, calling Budi to warn him against criminalizing corporate policies, such as those implemented by Lino. Such a raid, Kalla said, would only generate political noise and blur the original aims of corruption eradication. The Vice President knows well what would happen if criminal investigations were conducted into corporate behavior. The result would be legal uncertainty and in turn, an exodus of investors from the country.

Budi'€™s replacement must be approved by President Jokowi and, as in the furor over his selection of the National Police chief earlier this year, he must pass the test of leadership. As the direct superior of the police chief the President should be in full command of the law enforcement agency. In the context of Budi'€™s rotation, accusations of the President'€™s intervention with the police'€™s internal affairs are just exaggerations.

The President'€™s next job now is to ensure credible enforcement of the law by the police, simply because of their deficit in public trust.

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