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)