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.
Budi Gunawan most suitable candidate for police chief: PDI-P
Change Size
Then National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan attends a confirmation hearing at the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Jan. 4, 2015, despite being declared a graft suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). The KPK revealed that the police general owned suspiciously hefty bank accounts. . (JP/DON)
(JP/DON)
T
he ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has insisted that National Police deputy chief Corm. Gen. Budi Gunawan is the most suitable candidate to replace National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti, who is set to retire on July 28.
“If Badrodin's term is not extended, Budi Gunawan is the most suitable figure to replace him,” said PDI-P lawmaker Masinto Pasaribu as reported by kompas.com on Tuesday.
On Monday another PDI-P lawmaker Junimart Girsang said his party rejected any extension of Badrodin's leadership, because there was no legal basis to delay the current police chief's retirement.
Among the potential candidates to replace him, besides Budi, include head of the National Narcotic Agency (BNN) Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, head of the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) Comr. Gen. Tito Karnavian and head of the Police Education Institute Corm. Gen. Syafruddin.
In January, 2015, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had nominated Budi Gunawan as the National Police chief with approval from the House of Representatives. But the President was not able to inaugurate him because the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named him as a graft suspect.
Budi filed a pretrial motion to challenge the KPK’s decision and won the case as the court annulled his suspect status. It was the start of a war between the two institutions, where the police then named KPK commissioners – Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto, and KPK investigator Novel Baswedan suspects in criminal cases.
Later, the investigation into the three was suspended.
Masinton argued that Budi Gunawan had performed well as a National Police deputy chief, particularly in securing the implementation of the country's simultaneous regional elections. He added that under Badrodin and Budi, the National Police had succeeded in reforming the police institution to becoming more professional.
Meanwhile, Badrodin said the Police High Ranking Officials Nomination Council (Wanjakti) had not started the nomination process for police chief candidates. Badrodin said he did not know when the council would start work on selection, which must be submitted to the President.
Masinton expressed hope that the President would start proceedings on nominating a new National Police chief soon.
“Based on Article 38 of Law No. 2/2002 on the police force, the names of National Police chief candidates should be submitted to the President 30 to 40 days before Badrodin’s term expires, on July 27.
Meanwhile, Junimart said the he recognized that nominating a National Police chief is the prerogative of President Jokowi, but he added that the President had to explain the legal basis of any decision he made, including if he wanted to extend the term of Badrodin. (bbn)
