National Police Commission (Kompolnas) member Muhammad Nasser has urged the National Police to be proactive in handling the case involving House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto, who allegedly misused the names of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla and attempted to trade government favors for shares in gold and copper mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI).

Nasser said that such action would show that the police gave priority to cases that involved the public interest. '€œIt'€™s an opportunity to show that the National Police are now working for the sake of the authority of the law,'€ he said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.

The commissioner denounced National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti'€™s statement, in which he said that the police would rather choose to wait for results of the House ethics council'€™s questioning of Setya before they took any action.

Nasser said the investigation of the case did not have to wait for results of the council'€™s examination as that process might be heavily influenced by political interests.

'€œDon'€™t wait for the investigation results from the House ethics council, as they might be very politicized. The National Police must be neutral and independent. This must be handled seriously, professionally and in an accountable way before all sides intervene,'€ said Nasser.

He said Law No. 2/2002 on the National Police stipulated that the police worked in the name of the public interest, namely for the country and nation. '€œThus, the law must be upheld regardless of who or what is involved, and this must apply in the case of Setya Novanto,'€ said Nasser.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said reported Setya for alleged ethics violations to the House ethics council on Nov. 16. In his report, the minister handed over a conversation transcript, which suggested that the Golkar Party politician promised to facilitate negotiations on the extension of Freeport'€™s mining contract, which expires in 2021, provided that Freeport gave 11 percent of the shares to President Jokowi and 9 percent to VP Kalla.

Setya also reportedly asked Freeport to give him shares in an electricity project in Timika, Papua. The House speaker also allegedly asked Freeport to become not only an investor but also the buyer of electricity produced by the power plant. (ebf)(+)

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