Mon, 01 Jul 2002

'Police continue to carry out their daily tasks poorly'

Tiarma Siboro and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Police, officially dubbed the defenders of the country's justice system, have a long way to go in satisfactorily performing their duties of providing public security and combating rampant corruption, collusion, and nepotism, observers said on Sunday.

Adnan Pandupradja, secretary-general of Indonesian Police Watch, and Achmad Ali of the Makassar-based Hasanuddin University, said the police force, which will celebrate its 56th anniversary today, should improve its performance by first combating corruption within its ranks.

But Adnan said that to be fair, the police's poor performance was the result of various factors, including the classic one -- that its personnel were underpaid, even to the extent of receiving less that the minimum regional wage (UMR) set by the government for workers.

"Following the government's policy of promoting regional autonomy, a number of rich provinces, like Batam, are to subsidize their local police forces. But many people argue that this will even worsen the situation as the police will lose their neutrality. So, it's still not a solution," Adnan told The Jakarta Post.

After the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decided to separate the TNI from the police through its decree No. 7/2000, which came into effect last year, many expected that the police would become more independent and would promote a compassionate approach in dealing with the public.

But in several high profile cases, the police have once again found their image tarnished by the errant behavior of some officers.

During a recent hearing in the trial of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former president Soeharto, for his alleged involvement in the murder of Justice Sjafiuddin Kartasasmita, people were surprised to hear Tommy candidly telling the court that he had "coordinated" with the security apparatus during his time on the run.

Tommy shook the country's legal system when he fled the capital in November 2000, instead of serving the 18-month jail term imposed on him by the Supreme Court.

The police force has also faced problems in investigating Insp. Gen. Sofjan Jacoeb, the former Jakarta Police chief, over his alleged involvement in the smuggling of dozens of luxury cars into the country.

Following its separation from the TNI, many expected that the police would start to promote a persuasive approach in dealing with protests.

But the recent clashes between police personnel and workers of the Sidoarjo-based white goods producer PT Maspion clearly indicates that the police have failed to change their "militaristic culture". During the clash, photographer Wisnu Dewabrata of the Kompas daily was beaten up by at least 10 policemen while he was covering the two-day strike.

Others say the police as an institution should not be reluctant to prosecute corrupt officers.

"Many believe that some police personnel are involved in corruption in many ways. As long as the police force fails to combat corrupt officers, I don't see that the police can perform their duties well," Achmad Ali said as quoted by Antara.

In an effort to improve their performance, the police plan to restructure their precinct and subprecinct offices.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said recently that the plan was aimed at providing better service as well as making the work of the offices more efficient despite the limited number of personnel available.

Currently, each of the offices only has three units which directly connect with the public. These are the detective and intelligence unit, the alert unit and the public service unit.

Da'i said that in the future the units would be replaced with more specific units handling crimes against property, crimes against the person and drug crimes.

Police headquarters is currently awaiting presidential approval for the restructuring plan.