Civilian police force not a new concept in Indonesia

By Dwi Atmanta

JAKARTA (JP): History repeats itself. This saying fits the National Police since demands for it to separate from the Armed Forces first resurfaced in late May and early June.

During its 52 years of existence, the police have had the swing of the pendulum decide their fate. Like or not, these organizational changes have prevented it from becoming a solid and professional force.

Efforts to release the police from the Armed Forces' stranglehold have gained in momentum in the wake of demands for sweeping political reform.

Ironically, it was for political reasons that the National Police were first integrated with the Armed Forces in late 1960s, and the National Police Law passed by the House of Representatives last year confirmed this status.

The first police law, enacted in 1961, paved the way for police entry into the military and came about as a result of historical ties between the police and the armed forces built up during the fight against Dutch colonialism.

However, the 1961 police law clearly stated that the police were not a military force. It obliged the police to carry out their law enforcement duties as a civilian institution and entitled them the same treatment as civil servants in terms of career planning and salaries.

The National Police inherited the Dutch police administration shortly after independence. Former president Sukarno named Said Soekanto Tjokrodiatmodjo as the first National Police Chief.

The police were placed under the Ministry of Home Affairs supervision until the responsibility was handed over to the prime minister on July 1, 1946, in order to accelerate the development of the police force. This date has been celebrated as National Police Day ever since.

President Sukarno briefly took over this supervisory job after the first cabinet under prime minister Amir Sjarifuddin fell from power early in 1948.

Struggle

Needless to say, in their early period of existence the Indonesian police could not avoid joining the struggle for independence against the Dutch. In many places across the archipelago police took to battle fields and launched ambushes. Hundreds of Mobile Brigade police died during this heroic era.

The government placed the National Police under the supervision of the Minister of Defense when the Indonesian and the Dutch governments braced themselves for the transfer of sovereignty from the Dutch in 1949. Then, shortly after Indonesia breached its agreement with the Dutch on establishing a federal state in the archipelago in 1950, the prime minister regained control.

A presidential decree issued in July 1959 awarded National Police chief Soekanto a junior ministerial post until he retired in December of that year.

His successor, Soekarno Djojonegoro, was also given a cabinet post along with the chiefs of the three wings of the Armed Forces, as it was then.

The Provisional People's Consultative Assembly declared the National Police to be part of the Armed Forces, and this decree prompted the 1961 Law on the National Police, which confirmed the post of police chief as a junior ministerial job.

"There was nothing wrong with the police being part of the Armed Forces at that time because we were led by a statesman," former Police chief Gen. (ret) Kunarto recalled.

Another former police chief Gen. (ret) Awaloedin Djamin said that the Armed Forces maintained its control over the police under the New Order government because of fears that communists would disrupt unity between the forces.

"The Communist party caused a split within the Armed Forces during its heyday in the early 1960s. We realized that a lack of unity in the forces would cause the nation to disintegrate," Awaloedin said.

Kunarto said that the police were integrated into the Armed Forces in 1961 for practical reasons, particularly because the police were armed.

Awaloedin blamed the integration for triggering internal problems within the police. He said the integration had adversely affected the wealth of the organization, its operations and its human resources development.

"Unlike the military, the police need whopping budget during both wartime and peace," he said.

He recalled how the police had to bite their tongues when they were left out of the military cooperation programs with neighboring countries in the early years of the New Order era. The police were excluded, he said, because the other cooperating countries did not consider the police to be part of the Armed Forces.

Many believe that the police gained an advantage by becoming part of the Armed Forces, which is the major political power in the country.

However, legal expert Luhut Pangaribuan said the police had lost more then they had gained through the move, especially when it came to professionalism.

He said that often the police could not carry out their jobs as law enforcers because the military hierarchy would not allow them to.

"Police are forced to abide by the orders of their superiors at the expense of the law," he said.