Malaysian bombers haunt police efforts to polish image

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While Gen. Da'i Bachtiar prepares to leave his post as National Police chief, the police have announced the arrests of alleged members of Jamaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed for a spate of bomb attacks in the country since the 2002 Bali blasts.

During Da'i's four-year term, the police have found their fight against terrorism hampered by their failure to capture Malaysian bomb makers Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Moh. Top, the main suspects in the attacks.

Da'i himself admitted the police had faced many difficulties in locating terror suspects, particularly the two Malaysians, who he said had been helped to hide by local residents.

Rashid Lubis of the Indonesian Police Watch said the police were committed to combating terrorism but lacked intelligence resources.

"Since its separation from the military five years ago, it seems like the police lack assistance, particularly from the military's intelligence agency," Rashid said.

The police were finding it hard to live up to public expectations, he said, as resources were limited.

"If they now announce the capture of terrorist suspects, its just that they want to show the public their strategy is really working," Rashid said.

A source at the Surakarta Police said 24 suspects had been arrested and consequently detained.

Under the prevailing antiterrorism law, police can detain a terror suspect for seven days for questioning, without having to charge him or her.

Rashid doubted the recent arrests would help the police eradicate terrorism. The police will face allegations of human rights violations instead, he said.

"The police are forcing themselves to capture terror suspects because Pak Da'i will relinquish his position soon. He wants to produce a good impression of the police under his leadership," Rashid said.

However, Rashid also expressed skepticism that Da'i's successor, National Narcotics Agency head Comr. Gen. Sutanto, would perform better.

"The problem does not lie in the person but the system and resources," Rashid said.

A retired military intelligence officer said the police's inability to capture Azahari and Noordin was a consequence of the separation of the police force from the military.

"The separation changes our role from a leading player to a supporting one, which means we cannot move without a request from the police," he said.

A special unit in the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) has been trained to carry out counterterrorism operations.

Head of the Police Staff College (PTIK) Insp. Gen. Farouk Muhammad asked the public not to expect too much of Sutanto once he took office.

"To capture Azahari and Noordin is just as difficult as catching other criminals," he told a discussion held in conjunction with the police's 59th anniversary on Friday.

However, Farouk expected that Sutanto would be able to build a better system that would prevent terrorism from flourishing in the country.

A former advisor for the police in the investigation into the Bali bombings, Hermawan Sulistyo, agreed that the police's inability to capture Azahari and Noordin was the result of a poor system.

"Most officers don't want to serve in the antiterror squad because it's not a promising position regarding the amount of money they could earn if they take up a police precinct chief post," said Hermawan of the Indonesian Institute of Science.

He criticized the police's lack of professionalism, which was evident in the mutation of officers, who had been dealing with the manhunt of the two Malaysian fugitives, for organizational purposes.

"It slows the investigation as the police will have to start from square one," he said.