Leave the police alone

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.