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