Civilian police force not a new concept in Indonesia

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.