JP/4/Police

Members of police commission to be selected

Eva C. Komandjaja The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The National Police will begin registering candidates next month for the National Police Commission (KKN), which will monitor the performance of the police and play a role in selecting candidates for the post of police chief.

According to Presidential Decree No. 17/2005, the commission will have nine members. Six of the members will be appointed from the public, while the other three will come from the Cabinet. The coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs will act as chairman, the minister of home affairs will be deputy chairman, and the minister of justice and human rights will serve as a commission member.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boedihardjo said on Thursday three of the six members taken from the public would be public figures, while the other three would be independent law enforcement experts.

"We will open the registration from April 14 to 21," Aryanto said.

He said a special committee would be set up to select suitable candidates to sit on the police commission. The committee will begin the selection process once the registration is closed.

The committee will interview and test the candidates. The committee, whose members will come from both the police and from outside the institution, will submit the names of 12 candidates to the President, who will appoint six of the candidates to the commission.

"If the President does not approve the candidates, he can reject them and the committee will come up with another 12 candidates through a new registration and selection process," Aryanto said.

The committee is expected to submit the names of the candidates to the President in mid-May. This means a new National Police chief will not be named in the immediate future.

Even after the President names the members of the commission, it will take time before the commission can make any recommendations on a new police chief.

There had been reports that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono planned to replace National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar as part of the current reshuffle of the police leadership.

A leading candidate for the top police job is Insp. Gen. Sutanto, who was inaugurated on Thursday as the new head of the National Narcotics Agency.