Leave the police alone

President Abdurrahman Wahid is playing a very dangerous game in his drive to remove National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro from his post. Whether out of ignorance, poor advice or sheer madness, the President has obviously overestimated his own power in this affair. The entire force, as witnessed by the assembly of the National Police top leadership in Jakarta on Saturday, is fully behind Bimantoro, who has defied the President's demand for either his resignation or suspension. The majority in the House of Representatives, which by law has to approve the appointment or replacement of the National Police chief, has also thrown its support behind Bimantoro in defying the President's order.

While the most logical step now is for Abdurrahman to back off on his demand, there is no telling what the stubborn President will do. But we do know that logic and common sense have long been removed from his political vocabulary. The President seems capable and prepared to pull the country down deeper into the crisis, even to the brink of disintegration, in his all-out fight to stave off impeachment. He seems to be making sure that the entire nation will sink along with him.

What the President will do next in his campaign to remove Bimantoro is anybody's guess. But he would be gravely mistaken to encourage or allow his die-hard supporters to take on the entire National Police. Even with many of its shortcomings, the police force is still a legitimate law enforcement institution. The President, of all people, should be the first to respect the institution, instead of trying to undermine it as he seems to be doing now.

In his drive to remove Gen. Bimantoro, the President has dragged the National Police back into politics, or more precisely, into the political game that he has been playing as he fights for his political survival. It is common knowledge that the President has been toying with the idea of declaring a state of emergency nationwide, even when the situation does not merit it. In a state of emergency, the President would have virtually unlimited power, including the right to dissolve the House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly to preempt the impeachment process.

Bimantoro was one of three key officials who stood in the President's way this past week. The President fired Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as his chief security minister last week. The previous week, he failed in his attempt to remove Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto. Now he has turned his attention on Bimantoro.

Abdurrahman needs to have the cooperation of at least the police or the Army, who would have to execute the draconian measures, including arresting his political rivals, if he was to declare a state of emergency. Both Endriartono and Bimantoro have publicly stated their opposition to the plan.

It is glaringly obvious why the President wants both of them out of the way.

The President's tinkering with the National Police leadership is the last thing the force needs today. The police are already facing difficult and almost impossible tasks in dealing with armed insurgencies in Aceh and Irian Jaya, ethnic conflicts in Maluku, Central Kalimantan and Central Sulawesi, violent protests by the President's ardent supporters in East Java and growing crime rates in most urban areas. These hosts of seemingly endless problems have exposed some of the gross shortcomings of the force, ranging from understaffing and undertraining to the effects of inadequate remuneration and low morale. On top of all this, the National Police are also in the process of being revamped following their formal separation from the Indonesian Military. Now, of all times, the President is dragging the police back into politics just as they were starting to reform themselves.

The drive to remove Bimantoro, as part of his desperate effort to cling to power, is once again displaying a president who is caught in his own inconsistencies. The very president who was entrusted with overseeing the reforms of the police and the military, including their phasing out of politics, is dragging both forces back into politics. He appointed Comr. Gen. Chaeruddin Ismail as deputy police chief, and "caretaker" in view of Bimantoro's suspension, even though it was the President himself who scrapped the deputy chief post only a few months ago.

The worst part of this affair is the President's unsubstantiated accusations against Bimantoro that gave him the pretext to seek his removal.

First, the President held Bimantoro responsible for the death of one of Abdurrahman's supporters during the police's handling of violent unrest in the East Java town of Pasuruan last week. Later, Bimantoro was accused of sowing divisions between the President and Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri. Fortunately, Megawati's camp quickly denied that the police chief was involved in any such conspiracy.

With regard to the first accusation, the President has threatened to set up a commission to investigate the death of one of his supporters in Pasuruan last week. The supporter was apparently shot dead by a police officer during the violence. While an investigation into the death of one protester might be excessive, especially when the circumstances were clear, if the President still insists on one, then this inquiry should be conducted by an independent commission, and its task should include not only investigating the death of the supporter, but also the entire case of violence that erupted in Pasuruan last week. The investigation should look into the leaders behind the violent protests, the damage they caused to property including churches and mosques, and into why the leaders, including the President, stood silent as these supporters of his went on the rampage.