City police ask for criticism from Jakartans

By K. Basrie

JAKARTA (JP): The city police are asking Jakartans for a "special" gift for their 49th birthday: criticism.

"The police cannot do much to improve its services, and know what its weaknesses are, without criticism from the public," City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo said last week.

The two-star general's sincere call prompted a quick response from a journalist.

The reporter, an old face at the police beat, raised his hand and said, "But Sir, can you guarantee that the critics won't be caught on libel charges and have to spend their day in the interrogation room?"

The general only smiled in response to the journalist's cheeky question.

That particular question-and-answer session Dibyo had with journalists, two days before the police's 49th anniversary on July 1, well illustrated relations between the police and the public.

The city police chief repeated the old rhetoric and the public remains worried about possible consequences of criticizing the powerful security institution.

One thing stands out as rather unusual in the celebration of this year's police day; National Police Chief Banurusman, as well as the Armed Forces chief, conceded that the professionalism and services of the police are not yet as good as tax payers expect.

"We have to honestly admit that there are still a variety of weaknesses and shortcomings in both development and operational matters (of the police)," Feisal said when addressing the Police Day.

As for the Jakarta metropolitan police, despite its failures and weaknesses, usually related to the severity of its budget, it has won public applause for its intensive fight against crimes and support for government-sponsored campaigns.

It appears that Feisal's criticism also applies to the metropolitan police.

Several weeks after being inaugurated, in late January, Dibyo, for instance, found that many city police personnel were "lacking discipline".

On once occasion he was so upset at a senior officer coming late to a ceremony at city police headquarters, that he asked the officer not to join the ceremony. He was also outraged on learning that most of the police precincts under his supervision, in and around the city, do not conduct the routine ceremonies in the morning and afternoons, as required.

The government is continually improving its police personnel's well-being, by increasing their meal allowances and salaries, in a bid to boost their performances.

And yet, Jakarta's soaring cost of living has tempted some officers to look for extra income illegally. Asking for money from motorists who violate traffic rules is a classic example. A number of police officers still act as middlemen in the driving license processing section at city police headquarters, despite routine crackdowns.

It is a long-standing complaint that people who come to the police to report a case have to pay a certain amount of money if they want it to be investigated.

Public services, in general, are still unsatisfactory, largely due to the slow work of officers.

The Jakarta-based Indonesian Legal Aid Institute, one of well- known critics of the government, pointed out that throughout 1994, for instance, police in Jakarta still used excessive violence in dealing with suspected criminals.

Police, the institute stated in a press release, have often shot dead criminal suspects for dubious reasons, such as the criminal was "trying to escape".