Analyst Supports Police Chief on Strengthening Kompolnas Through Revision of Police Law
Jakarta, VIVA – Senior political analyst Boni Hargens supports the initiative to strengthen Kompolnas. According to him, Kompolnas is an integral part of the Indonesian National Police (Polri) institutional ecosystem.
This proposal is based on the view that Kompolnas requires a stronger and more independent legal foundation to carry out its oversight functions over the Polri institution more effectively and independently.
“In his argument, the establishment of a separate law is deemed to provide broader and clearer authority to Kompolnas, so it no longer fully depends on the existing regulatory framework in the Police Law,” Boni said in a written statement on Monday, 11 May 2026.
Boni gives explicit support to Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo’s stance on strengthening Kompolnas.
Boni emphasises that Kompolnas should not be understood as a standalone institution separate from the Polri institutional ecosystem, but rather as an integral part of efforts to strengthen the performance and culture of the police institution itself.
He assesses that placing Kompolnas within the Police Law framework does not mean reducing its independence or weakening its oversight function.
On the contrary, such regulation ensures that Kompolnas has a strong foundation in the relevant context, namely the optimisation of Polri’s role and functions in Indonesia’s continuously developing democratic system.
“Kompolnas that is properly regulated will become a strategic partner to Polri, not merely an external and isolated oversight body from the internal dynamics of policing,” Boni said.
He emphasises that in the democratic context, the police institution must not be outside the reach of civilian oversight, but the oversight mechanism itself must be designed in such a way as to encourage ongoing improvements in the capacity, accountability, and professionalism of the police.
“Both positions actually reflect two different approaches to viewing the relationship between the oversight body and the supervised body. The first approach emphasises structural separation and independence, while the second prioritises functional integration and close coordination. The choice between the two will greatly determine the direction of Indonesian police reform moving forward,” he stated.
One crucial point highlighted by Boni is the coordination between Kompolnas and Polri at the implementation level. Strengthening Kompolnas institutionally, whatever its regulatory form, will be meaningless if the coordination mechanism between the two institutions is not well designed and implemented.