City police chief to be replaced, Bimantoro says
City police chief to be replaced, Bimantoro says
JAKARTA (JP): In a surprise announcement, the National Police
declared on Wednesday that Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen.
Mulyono Sulaiman is to be replaced in May by the South Sulawesi
Police chief, Insp. Gen. Moch. Sofjan Yacob.
"Mulyono will be replaced in early May, after the House
plenary session on the memorandum. Mulyono will take care of
security in the capital until then," National Police chief Gen.
Suroyo Bimantoro told reporters at the National Police
Headquarters, on Thursday.
He said the decree on the replacement was issued on Monday.
When asked about the necessity of the replacement, Bimantoro
simply said that the track record of Sofjan, who has spent the
last five years teaching and serving in a number of positions at
the National Defense Institute (Lemhannas), had been commendable.
"He's really good with legal matters.. we believe Yacob would
be best, serving in Jakarta as police chief," Bimantoro said.
The replacement came as a surprise because in early February,
Bimantoro tried to reason with legislators of House Commission I
for security, defense and foreign affairs in a meeting, that
Mulyono was the "best person for the job".
Bimantoro had said in that meeting that since Mulyono was due
to retire in April, he would make the necessary arrangements to
postpone Mulyono's retirement for another year.
National Police sources said that Bimantoro had indeed tried
to postpone Mulyono's retirement, but the proposal was rejected
by certain legislators who had taken a serious dislike toward
Mulyono, reportedly for personal reasons.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Didi Widayadi dismissed
allegations that legislators had a hand in Mulyono's replacement.
"Whenever replacements are discussed, opinions are taken from
the general public, legislators, police forces nationwide and top
officials of the National Police. I disagree that legislators had
directly interfered in getting Mulyono replaced," Didi told
reporters on Wednesday.
When asked if Didi knew that Yacob had met with certain top
legislators recently, he denied any knowledge of the meeting.
Mulyono will retire in the coming month as initially
scheduled.
He was installed as Jakarta Police chief last October,
replacing Insp. Gen. Nurfaizi, who like Mulyono, had not lasted
for more than eight months as police chief of the capital.
Sofjan Yacob himself is due to retire sometime next year.
A 1970 graduate of the Police Academy and a 1983 graduate of
the National Police Staff and Command School in Bandung, West
Java, Yacob can reportedly speak two foreign languages and three
local dialects.
He has spent most of his police career in high-ranking
positions in the North Sumatra Police.
In an unrelated development, Bimantoro dismissed rumors that
he would soon resign as National Police chief, because of his
reported differences with President Abdurrahman Wahid on among
other things, security measures in Aceh. (ylt)