Any assignment is a religious duty: General<\/p>\n
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali<\/p>\n
Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika was giving
\na speech at the Papua Peace Conference in Jayapura last Wednesday
\nafternoon when his adjutant leaned in and whispered that he had
\nan important call on his cellular phone.<\/p>\n
\"There are only two people I fear in this world: the National
\nPolice chief and my wife. I will always answer any call made by
\neither of them. And this one is from the National Police chief,\"
\nMangku said by way of apology to the conference participants
\nbefore taking the call.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later he told the audience that the National
\nPolice chief had just named him to head the special investigation
\nteam tasked with finding the party responsible for the Oct. 12
\nbombing in Legian, Bali.<\/p>\n
\"One of the participants stood up and said they would organize
\na mass rally to express their opposition to my transfer from
\nPapua. I calmed them, explaining that I was not being
\ntransferred. I was and still am the Papua Police chief, but with
\nthe additional duty of heading the investigation team,\" Mangku
\nsaid with a smile as he recalled that moment.<\/p>\n
\"At the end of the conference, they prayed together to ask God
\nto help and guide me in completing my task. I was deeply touched
\nby that,\" Mangku said here on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Mangku treats his new assignment with the same sense of
\nrespect he has given to all his previous assignments.<\/p>\n
\"Any assignment, regardless of the level of difficulty
\ninvolved, is a Dharma -- a religious duty -- and I will sincerely
\ntry to carry out that duty to the best of my ability. I believe
\nthat if somebody is earnestly committed to doing something, then
\nhe shall accomplish his objectives,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Even as he was speaking, his 80-year-old mother was in the
\nmiddle of a sacred pilgrimage to numerous temples in Bali, asking
\nthe gods to protect and guide her son in investigating the attack
\nthat has shattered their island.<\/p>\n
His immediate priority is establishing a working atmosphere
\nand structure that will ensure a high level of coordination and
\ncooperation among the different members of the team, which
\nincludes Indonesian, Australian, American, Japanese, British and
\nGerman investigators.<\/p>\n
\"I will have to formulate a job description, command structure
\nand working-relations for each human resource we have on the
\nteam,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He brushed aside rumors that the investigation team was marred
\nby friction between the Indonesian officers and their foreign
\ncounterparts.<\/p>\n
\"These people (the foreign officers) are here to assist us.
\nAnd they are experts who have extensive knowledge of forensics,
\nexplosives and telecommunications. Now it is up to us to help
\nthem utilize their expertise to obtain the best results in the
\ninvestigation. There is no friction that I am aware of.
\nCommunication problems probably take place sometimes since not
\nall of our officers speak English fluently and not all foreign
\nofficers speak Bahasa very well,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Mangku does not see the team members' diverse backgrounds and
\nnationalities as a problem. He was in a similar situation in
\n1988-1989, when he served as a commanding officer for the UN's
\npolice force in Namibia.<\/p>\n
\"I supervised officers from 15 different countries and some of
\nthose countries were politically very hostile to each other. Some
\nof my officers at that time were from India and Pakistan, and
\nalso from West Germany and East Germany,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Soft-spoken and humble, Mangku was initially reluctant to give
\nan interview to discuss either his career with the police or his
\npersonal life. He even downplayed the importance of his role on
\nthe investigation team, particularly since he is a two-star
\ngeneral and thus outranks the Bali Police chief, a one-star
\ngeneral.<\/p>\n
\"Come on, I haven't done anything yet. I just arrived and have
\nnot been briefed on the latest developments in the investigation.
\nI just came here to manage the team. It is the Bali Police chief,
\nthe local police officers, the team members and our foreign
\ncounterparts who have done tremendous work and have achieved
\nsignificant progress. And then I came. Sometimes it feels good to
\nbe the boss,\" he said with a smile.<\/p>\n
Born on June 22, 1951, in the small village of Patemon in the
\nSeririt district of Bali's northern regency of Buleleng, Mangku
\nspent a carefree childhood with his five brothers and sisters
\nuntil the island's highest mountain, Mt. Agung, erupted in 1963.
\nThe volcanic earthquake that ensued destroyed most of the houses
\nand infrastructure in Seririt and forced Mangku's family to
\nleave the island. They moved to Bengkulu and in 1971 to
\nPalembang, both in Sumatra.<\/p>\n
After graduating from the Police Academy in 1974, Mangku's
\nfirst assignment was with the famous scout's regiment of the
\npolice's elite Mobile Brigade. Three years later he was appointed
\nadjutant to the then minister of defense\/armed forces commander
\nGen. Maraden Panggabean.<\/p>\n
Mangku attended the prestigious Army Staff and Command School
\nin 1991 before filling the important post of West Jakarta Police
\nchief, and later held different positions with the National
\nPolice's detectives directorate.<\/p>\n
He earned his first star in November 1999, a few months after
\ncompleting a high-profile assignment as the police commander in
\nEast Timor, overseeing some 4,000 officers tasked with providing
\nsecurity during the self-determination ballot in the province.<\/p>\n
In 2000, Mangku spent several months as the secretary of the
\nNational Crime Bureau (NCB) before being appointed East Nusa
\nTenggara Police chief in October.<\/p>\n
In 2001 he was assigned as the Papua Police chief, where he
\nearned his second star after overseeing several high-profile
\ncases, including the kidnapping of 17 workers, including three
\nSouth Koreans, from PT Korindo Group by a Free Papua Movement
\n(OPM) faction led by Willem Onde; the kidnapping of two Belgians
\nby another group of the OPM led by Titus and Beny Murid; and the
\nmurder of Theys Hiyo Eluay, the head of the Papua Council
\nPresidium.<\/p>\n
Bali Police chief Brig. Gen. Budi Setyawan praised the
\ndecision to assign Mangku to head the investigation team, saying
\nMangku had the expertise and ability to solve the case.<\/p>\n
\"And General Pastika speaks six different languages fluently,
\nso he will not have any difficulty in speaking his mind to his
\nforeign counterparts, while I cannot even speak English
\nproperly,\" Budi Setyawan said.<\/p>\n
Mangku himself is not exactly certain why he was chosen to
\nlead the investigation team, but he has some ideas.<\/p>\n
\"Perhaps because I am Balinese,\" he said.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/any-assignment-is-a-religious-duty-general-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }