Mahfud MD Reveals KPRP Rejects Placing Polri Under a Ministry: Safer This Way

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – The Commission for Accelerating Police Reform (KPRP) has revealed the reasons for not proposing that the Indonesian National Police (Polri) be placed under a ministry. KPRP member Mahfud MD stated that if Polri were under a ministry, it would be vulnerable to politicisation.

Therefore, KPRP recommends that Polri remain directly under the President. “Politically, it is safer because if placed under a ministry, ministers in our political system are occupied by party figures, so it would end up being politicised again. It’s better directly under the President,” he said in Jakarta on Wednesday (6/5/2026).

The former Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs stated that KPRP recommends that limitations on positions that Polri members can hold outside the police institution must be regulated in a limited manner. The basis for regulating these position limitations, according to Mahfud, will later be addressed through regulations because it concerns the needs of civil servants (ASN).

“It must be limited, whether in the form of a presidential regulation (PP) or a law,” said Mahfud.

Previously, President Prabowo Subianto received the final report and recommendations from KPRP, handed over by Prof Jimly Asshiddiqie as chairman, at Merdeka Palace, Central Jakarta, on Tuesday (5/5/2026) afternoon WIB. The head of state received several books, including one titled “Jembatan Aspirasi untuk Reformasi Polri” as well as “Tindak Lanjut Rekomendasi”.

Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections, who is also a KPRP member, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, conveyed that the compiled report varies in thickness from thousands of pages to a short summary. Its contents consist of various proposals and recommendations from the Commission for Accelerating Police Reform to carry out improvements in the police institution.

Yusril stated that the submitted recommendations are substantial and have the potential to bring major changes to the police institutional system. In fact, several proposals are considered capable of impacting revisions to the current Police Law.

“If approved, there will be implications for changes to the existing Polri law,” said Yusril.