National Police Chief: Active Officers Cannot Arbitrarily Fill Civilian Posts, Here Are the Requirements

National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo has emphasised that active police officers cannot simply or arbitrarily fill civilian positions. According to him, there must be a series of processes and regulations that must be adhered to. Sigit made this statement in response to reporters’ questions regarding concerns from civil society groups about the regulation of filling civilian posts by Polri members in the newly ratified Police Law. “Polri, in principle, has rules related to the placement of Polri personnel outside its structure. The requirement is that there must be a request from the ministry that wishes to have a Polri member,” Sigit said during a press conference at the House of Representatives (DPR) building in Jakarta on Tuesday. Furthermore, the National Police Chief continued, Polri personnel assigned to positions outside the institution must obtain approval from the Ministry of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform (PANRB). “And they must follow an open bidding process or a merit system. So, it is not that Polri directly places someone, but this process must be undergone, so it is not arbitrary,” he said. “If there is no request, then Polri will also not send anyone,” the National Police Chief added. Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Law Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej stated that the government respects civil society’s criticism of the revised Police Law. He invited the public to file for a review at the Constitutional Court (MK) if they felt disadvantaged. “I think, once a law is enacted, and then there are members of the public who feel their constitutional rights have been violated, it can be reviewed at the Constitutional Court, both formally and materially. So, I think we accept these criticisms with open arms, but there is an elegant channel for them,” he said. The DPR’s plenary session on Tuesday approved the Bill on the Third Amendment to Law Number 2 of 2002 on the Indonesian National Police to be passed into law.