Any assignment is a religious duty: General

Any assignment is a religious duty: General

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali

Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika was giving
a speech at the Papua Peace Conference in Jayapura last Wednesday
afternoon when his adjutant leaned in and whispered that he had
an important call on his cellular phone.

"There are only two people I fear in this world: the National
Police chief and my wife. I will always answer any call made by
either of them. And this one is from the National Police chief,"
Mangku said by way of apology to the conference participants
before taking the call.

A few minutes later he told the audience that the National
Police chief had just named him to head the special investigation
team tasked with finding the party responsible for the Oct. 12
bombing in Legian, Bali.

"One of the participants stood up and said they would organize
a mass rally to express their opposition to my transfer from
Papua. I calmed them, explaining that I was not being
transferred. I was and still am the Papua Police chief, but with
the additional duty of heading the investigation team," Mangku
said with a smile as he recalled that moment.

"At the end of the conference, they prayed together to ask God
to help and guide me in completing my task. I was deeply touched
by that," Mangku said here on Thursday.

Mangku treats his new assignment with the same sense of
respect he has given to all his previous assignments.

"Any assignment, regardless of the level of difficulty
involved, is a Dharma -- a religious duty -- and I will sincerely
try to carry out that duty to the best of my ability. I believe
that if somebody is earnestly committed to doing something, then
he shall accomplish his objectives," he said.

Even as he was speaking, his 80-year-old mother was in the
middle of a sacred pilgrimage to numerous temples in Bali, asking
the gods to protect and guide her son in investigating the attack
that has shattered their island.

His immediate priority is establishing a working atmosphere
and structure that will ensure a high level of coordination and
cooperation among the different members of the team, which
includes Indonesian, Australian, American, Japanese, British and
German investigators.

"I will have to formulate a job description, command structure
and working-relations for each human resource we have on the
team," he said.

He brushed aside rumors that the investigation team was marred
by friction between the Indonesian officers and their foreign
counterparts.

"These people (the foreign officers) are here to assist us.
And they are experts who have extensive knowledge of forensics,
explosives and telecommunications. Now it is up to us to help
them utilize their expertise to obtain the best results in the
investigation. There is no friction that I am aware of.
Communication problems probably take place sometimes since not
all of our officers speak English fluently and not all foreign
officers speak Bahasa very well," he said.

Mangku does not see the team members' diverse backgrounds and
nationalities as a problem. He was in a similar situation in
1988-1989, when he served as a commanding officer for the UN's
police force in Namibia.

"I supervised officers from 15 different countries and some of
those countries were politically very hostile to each other. Some
of my officers at that time were from India and Pakistan, and
also from West Germany and East Germany," he said.

Soft-spoken and humble, Mangku was initially reluctant to give
an interview to discuss either his career with the police or his
personal life. He even downplayed the importance of his role on
the investigation team, particularly since he is a two-star
general and thus outranks the Bali Police chief, a one-star
general.

"Come on, I haven't done anything yet. I just arrived and have
not been briefed on the latest developments in the investigation.
I just came here to manage the team. It is the Bali Police chief,
the local police officers, the team members and our foreign
counterparts who have done tremendous work and have achieved
significant progress. And then I came. Sometimes it feels good to
be the boss," he said with a smile.

Born on June 22, 1951, in the small village of Patemon in the
Seririt district of Bali's northern regency of Buleleng, Mangku
spent a carefree childhood with his five brothers and sisters
until the island's highest mountain, Mt. Agung, erupted in 1963.
The volcanic earthquake that ensued destroyed most of the houses
and infrastructure in Seririt and forced Mangku's family to
leave the island. They moved to Bengkulu and in 1971 to
Palembang, both in Sumatra.

After graduating from the Police Academy in 1974, Mangku's
first assignment was with the famous scout's regiment of the
police's elite Mobile Brigade. Three years later he was appointed
adjutant to the then minister of defense/armed forces commander
Gen. Maraden Panggabean.

Mangku attended the prestigious Army Staff and Command School
in 1991 before filling the important post of West Jakarta Police
chief, and later held different positions with the National
Police's detectives directorate.

He earned his first star in November 1999, a few months after
completing a high-profile assignment as the police commander in
East Timor, overseeing some 4,000 officers tasked with providing
security during the self-determination ballot in the province.

In 2000, Mangku spent several months as the secretary of the
National Crime Bureau (NCB) before being appointed East Nusa
Tenggara Police chief in October.

In 2001 he was assigned as the Papua Police chief, where he
earned his second star after overseeing several high-profile
cases, including the kidnapping of 17 workers, including three
South Koreans, from PT Korindo Group by a Free Papua Movement
(OPM) faction led by Willem Onde; the kidnapping of two Belgians
by another group of the OPM led by Titus and Beny Murid; and the
murder of Theys Hiyo Eluay, the head of the Papua Council
Presidium.

Bali Police chief Brig. Gen. Budi Setyawan praised the
decision to assign Mangku to head the investigation team, saying
Mangku had the expertise and ability to solve the case.

"And General Pastika speaks six different languages fluently,
so he will not have any difficulty in speaking his mind to his
foreign counterparts, while I cannot even speak English
properly," Budi Setyawan said.

Mangku himself is not exactly certain why he was chosen to
lead the investigation team, but he has some ideas.

"Perhaps because I am Balinese," he said.