Police force faces new challenges<\/p>\n
Today the Indonesian police force is celebrating its 49th
\nanniversary. Satjipto Rahardjo looks at the present challenges
\nfacing the force.<\/p>\n
SEMARANG (JP): The Indonesian police force, or POLRI, came
\ninto being amid the fight for independence. Today, half a century
\nlater, the Indonesian police have to confront a much different
\nsituation and many new challenges.<\/p>\n
In 1946, the police force and their countrymen fought hand in
\nhand against the colonial power. Today they are facing the
\nchallenge of how to perform their duties professionally.<\/p>\n
It is not easy to transform the culture of policing in a
\ncolonial administration into the policing of an independent
\nIndonesia. I still see traces of colonial policing today.<\/p>\n
Police who have to question the legitimacy of people talking
\nin public is but that kind of colonial trait.<\/p>\n
The police are not highly esteemed in our society. I think
\npeople still consider the administration of peace and order in a
\nsociety as something that can be taken for granted, not a serious
\nundertaking. It is not uncommon for people to avoid having to do
\nwith the police as much as possible. Doing business with the
\npolice is considered unpleasant and is likely to create more of a
\nproblem than a solution.<\/p>\n
Of course that kind of situation is detrimental to the
\nbusiness of the police, who have to work closely with the people.
\nWithout the understanding and support of the people, police can
\nnot perform well. We are talking about image building, which
\nmeans that the police force has to be able to cast itself in such
\na way that people will trust them.<\/p>\n
Back to the question of keeping peace and order, it is now
\nbecoming more evident that this cannot be taken for granted. We
\ndo not have to wait until it is not safe to walk on the streets
\nto appreciate the importance of police tasks.<\/p>\n
A society wanting to live in peace and order has to pay for
\nit. The people should be willing to pay their police to have the
\nquality of order they want. A glimpse of how nations spend their
\nmoney on police is shown in Table 1.<\/p>\n
The table compares the basic monthly salary of a new police
\nrecruit to the top cop, and to a bank clerk. The figures
\ndramatize the problem of how much society is willing to pay those
\nwho engaged in dangerous jobs and those who are doing ordinary
\noffice work.<\/p>\n
TABLE 1 (in US$)<\/p>\n
Country Recruit Chief Clerk<\/p>\n
INDONESIA 63 930 233
\n MALAYSIA 156 1,465 597
\n SINGAPORE 513 9,682 510
\n THAILAND 147 1,703 253
\n HONG KONG 1,323 16,901 724
\n PHILIPPINES 36 471 275<\/p>\n
(Source: Asiaweek, April 20, 1994)<\/p>\n
Another comparison shows the shortage of police personnel in
\nIndonesia. The common international standard for people per
\npolice is about one in four hundred. The figures of people per
\npolice officer are shown in Table 2.<\/p>\n
TABLE 2<\/p>\n
Indonesia 1 : 1,100
\n Thailand 1 : 228
\n Malaysia 1 : 249
\n Philippines 1 : 665
\n Singapore 1 : 295
\n Hong Kong 1 : 220<\/p>\n
The above figures show how the Indonesian police force has to
\nwork harder than its colleagues in neighboring countries.<\/p>\n
Everywhere in the world the police are a paramilitary force.
\nWhile the police in Indonesia belong to ABRI (the Armed Forces),
\nthey are not a combatant. In Act 20\/1982 on defense and order,
\nthe police are given the autonomy of an agency of the criminal
\njustice system, by which its main job is to keep order and to
\nenforce the law. This is a rather complex situation, and so I
\nalways like to characterize the police, especially in Indonesia,
\nas \"a civilian in uniform\". It is important to distinguish the
\ndifference in doctrines between a military and police nature, as
\nthe one is to destroy while the other is to protect and to care.<\/p>\n
The police force has to accommodate any changes happening in
\nsociety that make the police officer's life more complicated. The
\nemergence of environmental problems puts weight on them to
\ndevelop new skills (such as forensic tactics). But as far as I
\nknow there are still no special branches here like the
\nenvironmental police forces in some other countries.<\/p>\n
Mastery of modern technology and coping with political
\ndevelopment are two important issues confronting our police force
\nat the moment. As Indonesia moves towards a civil society, in
\nwhich the rights of the people gain more importance, policing
\nwill undoubtedly get more complicated.<\/p>\n
The writer is a sociology of law professor at Diponegoro
\nUniversity, Semarang, and a member of the National Commission on
\nHuman Rights.<\/p>",
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