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View all search resultsThe untouchables: The case for breaking up the National Police
Indonesia built an untouchable police monster that now spies on the President himself—and the only way to save democracy is to break it up.
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President Prabowo Subianto (right) confers an honorary distinction on Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo at the Presidential Palace complex, Jakarta, on Oct. 1, 2026. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
T
he wiretapping of President Prabowo Subianto and his ministers by senior police generals is not another scandal. It is proof that Indonesia has built a monster. Over two decades, the police have accumulated surveillance power, political leverage and institutional autonomy until they could aim their tools at the head of state himself.
With the onset of the Reform era in 1998, reformers set out to create a professional civilian police force, free of the military. They escaped one danger and manufactured another: a hyper-centralized force answerable to the president on paper and to almost no one in practice.
The wiretapping crisis settles the debate. The model has failed, and tinkering will not fix it. Indonesia must break up this concentration of power, strip the police of political leverage, impose independent oversight and decentralize law enforcement.
The root of the problem is the direct line from the National Police chief to the president. It was meant to guarantee civilian command. In reality, it handed the police a permanent bargaining chip.
Presidents depend on the police for political intelligence, election security and domestic order, so no president can afford to discipline top generals without risking retaliation.
Because the police answer only to the head of state, headquarters sits above ordinary cabinet oversight, beyond the reach of the legislative power and the administration alike.
This is an institution that is formally subordinate but practically untouchable. Every scandal ends the same way, with a reshuffle and an ensuing press conference, and the incentives never change.
