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Police must explain lies about tape, say experts
Lawmakers and the President must hold the National Police chief responsible for lying about key evidence indicating graft within the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), experts say
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awmakers and the President must hold the National Police chief responsible for lying about key evidence indicating graft within the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), experts say.
Syamsudin Haris, a political observer from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that should lawmakers and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono fail to do so, public distrust in the police would grow.
“The people see strong indications that the police are hiding something,” he said, adding that the fiasco could entail a forced resignation of National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri by lawmakers or Yudhoyono.
“In the context of politics, [the forced] resignation of Bambang would symbolize a psychological disruption of the relation between the Yudhoyono and the police force,” Syamsudin said.
The National Police are entrapped by their inconsistency in promising to reveal wiretapped conversation recordings between KPK deputy chairman Ade Rahardja and suspected case broker Ary Muladi regarding attempted bribery.
Previously, Bambang repeatedly claimed that the police had the recordings, which could be strong evidence to support allegations that KPK top officials had attempted to blackmail businessman Anggodo Widjojo.
Two weeks ago the police were ordered by the Corruption Court to present the tapes, but to no avail.
On Wednesday, the National Police said they were in possession of only call detail records, not the recordings.
Budidarmono, a University of Indonesia law professor, told the Post that despite the fact no legal retributions could be meted out against them, the National Police chief should at least take responsibility and apologize to the public.
“The police’s credibility is at stake. The public are disappointed by the institution’s increasingly poor performance,” he said.
Budidarmono believes there must have been a faulty internal mechanism within the police institution, which has caused disharmony between superiors and subordinates.
The public also voiced their concern over the recent police debacle.
Wendy Chandra, 25, a private banking consultant, said the people could see how the police were incapacitated to help the court solve the corruption case allegedly involving Anggodo.
“Even though the media spotlight on the case was immense, the police still had the guts to twist their statements.
“If they could lie to the court, what made them think they could not also deceive us?” he said.
Meanwhile, House of Representatives deputy speaker Pramono Anung from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), urged the House to summon Bambang to clarify the recording’s existence.
“The National Police chief must be held accountable for his previous statement to the House about the existence of the recording.”
Presidential spokesman Julian A. Pasha said Yudhoyono had not commented on the matter.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang denied that the police had deceived the public by giving false statements about the existence of the recordings.
“It was a misinterpretation. We never meant to make a wrong statement,” Edward told journalists. (tsy)
