Limited authority of the police

Limited authority of the police

From Kompas

Kompas of Sept. 20 published a news report about the bomb
explosion at the Jakarta Stock Exchange building, titled Police
optimistic, the community pessimistic. What the title of this
news report says is true if we draw up a chronological list of
bomb explosions across the country because who the perpetrators
and the masterminds are is still a mystery.

During the New Order period, in the case of a bomb explosion,
the perpetrator would be arrested within a week at the most
because the security apparatuses would arrest "a scapegoat" and
the real perpetrator would be the party nabbing the so-called
scapegoat. The party making the arrest would also get a token of
appreciation.

Learning from the past, the community had their own idea about
the replacement of the National Police chief as they believed
this had to do with the old forces, who happened to be of the
same generation and tried to block him.

The masterminds must be the old forces wishing to make a
comeback in order to preserve their power and political
doctrines. They are heartless people devoid of humanity. They are
simply robots with complete obedience to the leader and find
giving up alien to them. Regarding the bomb explosion at the
Attorney General's Office, the police only managed to make a
sketch of the face of the alleged perpetrator but failed to
arrest him. The perpetrator is behind a very thick wall too
difficult to penetrate.

It is therefore understandable why the community is
pessimistic. This pessimism must be understood in the context
that the community realizes that there is a constraint blocking
the police in their attempt to arrest the mastermind and the
perpetrator of the bomb explosion. It must be construed as
dwarfing the role of the police. This constraint is the limited
authority of the National Police and the Attorney General's
Office to investigate the participation of one institution in a
series of bomb explosions.

ZAINAL

Jakarta