Opposition to police legislation intensifies

Tiarma Siboro and Abu Hanifah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Governor of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) Ermaya Suradinata expressed concern here on Monday that the National Police had yet to be independent despite their separation from the Indonesian Military (TNI).

"After conducting research on the police, I have found out that Indonesia is the only country that places its National Police directly under the president," Ermaya told reporters on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of a Lemhannas training course.

"Nearly 90 percent of all countries have placed their National Police under the Ministry of Home Affairs. This does not include the United States, which places its police under the Ministry of Justice," he said.

"The situation is worsened by the requirement that the president must secure approval from the House of Representatives to elect the chief of police," Ermaya said, adding that the intervention of the president and the House would affect the independence of the police, despite calls that it should remain neutral from any political interests.

Ermaya criticized the People's Consultative Assembly Decree No. VI/MPR/2001, which stipulates that the National Police be headed by a chief who is appointed and dismissed by the president, with the consent of the House.

Such a decree has been adopted in a bill on the police, scheduled to be enacted on Tuesday.

According to Ermaya, the election of the chief of police must be left to the institution itself as it held responsibility to manage its own personnel.

Twenty three legislators demanded on Monday that the House speaker delay the enactment of the police bill.

Hartono Mardjono, one of the 23 legislators, argued that as the bill was prone to police manipulation, so as to substitute TNI's political role, its enactment should be postponed.

The bill needed reviewing as it was only advantageous to the police, he said.

"I have the impression that the police would attempt to take over the political role abandoned by the TNI. This is not right, both the TNI and police should keep away from politics," Hartono told The Jakarta Post.

He said that there were loopholes in the bill that needed to be reviewed and restored as articles in the bill had no clear-cut explanation.

Citing Articles 4 and 14 in Section C of the bill, Hartono said that police could take any measure to quell action that threatened their existence.

"This contradicts the function of the police to serve and protect the public," Hartono said.