Members of KKN to be selected

Members of KKN to be selected

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Police will begin registering candidates next
month for the National Police Commission (KKN), which will
monitor the performance of the police and play a role in
selecting candidates for the post of police chief.

According to Presidential Decree No. 17/2005, the commission
will have nine members. Six of the members will be appointed from
the public, while the other three will come from the Cabinet.
The coordinating minister for political, legal and security
affairs will act as chairman, the minister of home affairs will
be deputy chairman, and the minister of justice and human rights
will serve as a commission member.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boedihardjo said
on Thursday three of the six members taken from the public would
be public figures, while the other three would be independent law
enforcement experts.

"We will open the registration from April 14 to 21," Aryanto
said.

He said a special committee would be set up to select suitable
candidates to sit on the police commission. The committee will
begin the selection process once the registration is closed.

The committee will interview and test the candidates. The
committee, whose members will come from both the police and from
outside the institution, will submit the names of 12 candidates
to the President, who will appoint six of the candidates to the
commission.

"If the President does not approve the candidates, he can
reject them and the committee will come up with another 12
candidates through a new registration and selection process,"
Aryanto said.

The committee is expected to submit the names of the
candidates to the President in mid-May. This means a new National
Police chief will not be named in the immediate future.

Even after the President names the members of the commission,
it will take time before the commission can make any
recommendations on a new police chief.

There had been reports that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
planned to replace National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar as
part of the current reshuffle of the police leadership.

A leading candidate for the top police job is Insp. Gen.
Sutanto, who was inaugurated on Thursday as the new head of the
National Narcotics Agency.