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Jokowi reads police the riot act
President Joko Widodo has summoned all senior police officers to the Presidential Palace to given them a dressing down, after the corps suffered a series of credibility-shattering incidents. Potential police involvement in a drug ring served to rub salt in the wound.
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Police officers line up to enter the State Palace in Jakarta on Friday, October 14, 2022. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo invited top brass from the National Police headquarters, regional police chiefs and district police chiefs from across the country to his office for directives. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
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ust as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo moved to discipline the embattled leadership of the National Police following a series of cases that have sparked a crisis of confidence in the institution a fresh scandal involving the police blew up.
As hundreds of regional police chiefs and high-ranking officers from across the archipelago convened at the Presidential Palace on Friday, reports emerged that a wealthy cop set to take over the reins in East Java had instead been detained in an investigation, a further blow to the law enforcement institution’s crumbling public image.
Just hours before the assembly, lawmakers revealed to the press that incoming East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Teddy Minahasa had been detained on charges relating to a drug case.
National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo confirmed the arrest later that day after the police corps was berated by Jokowi in private and forced to take ownership of its missteps in recent weeks, starting with the botched murder plot instigated by senior police officer Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo, the firing of teargas at a soccer match that led to a deadly stampede in Malang, East Java, as well as reports of the lavish lifestyles that many officers egregiously enjoy on the public payroll.
Listyo said that Teddy was placed in police custody and awaits further investigation into a drug-trafficking case in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, which would have come under his purview as the former West Sumatra Police chief.
The arrest is a follow-up to an ongoing investigation by the Jakarta Police into a suspected drug ring with covert links to a number of police officers, the police chief said.
“A few days ago, the Jakarta Police uncovered a network of illicit drug traffickers as a result of a tip-off from the public. At the time, three civilians were arrested and the case led us to the involvement of a police officer and a precinct police chief,” Listyo told a press conference on Friday.
