Police force hit by acute sickness, Kusparmono says

JAKARTA (JP): A retired police general believes that the recent extortion allegedly committed by a police subprecinct chief is a reflection of an acute sickness in the corps.

"Officers such as he always have to arrange and prepare everything when his seniors want to, for example, play golf at a course located in his area," Maj. Gen. (ret) Koesparmono Irsan told The Jakarta Post last night.

To make sure everything goes well, the officers normally "do their best" to satisfy their bosses, he said.

"I don't think that I should explain this in detail," said the former deputy national police chief for operational affairs.

Capt. Unggul, chief of the Serpong police subprecinct in Tangerang, was detained late last month by officers of the Jakarta Police Internal Affairs division for his alleged role in extorting money from a 70-year-old suspected gambling operator that had been arrested.

Reports said that the officer asked the suspect to give him Rp 10 million in cash and a 1,000-square-meter plot of land. In return, he agreed to release the suspect.

Unggul was immediately dismissed from his post but the results of the investigation remain unannounced.

"I have received no reports from the related officers about the investigation," City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna said yesterday.

According to Koesparmono, what Unggul was allegedly guilty of was trying to satisfy the arrogance of some of his seniors.

"I exactly know who the arrogant officers are," he said.

The retired two-star general said that such arrogant senior officers only phoned local police chiefs if they wanted to go to the area to do something, mostly for pleasure.

Sometimes, the local officers have to prepare a big event, such as a golf tournament which, of course, forces them to persuade other parties to satisfy their bosses.

"These senior officers never give anything but they get many things," he said.

"It doesn't happen all the time but I have plenty of experience about this," said Koesparmono, now rector at the police-sponsored Bhayangkara University.

He, however, hopes that the police, under the current leadership of Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo, will be able to deal with such sicknesses in the police force.

Dibyo, who was appointed national police chief five months ago, has harshly punished undisciplined personnel on many occasions.

"We don't want to keep any shoddy officers in our force," the three-star general said recently.

In another related development, national police spokesman, Brig. Gen. Nurfaizi, said that the recent suspension of the once famous Jakarta police officer Col. Adang "was carried out at the officer's own request."

"It's Adang himself who asked to quit the police force and decided to work overseas," Nurfaizi told reporters yesterday.

Adang became famous for his alleged leadership in solving a wide range of serious crimes in the city, including the murder of noted painter Basuki Abdullah in 1993.

A reliable source said that Adang is now in Australia. (bsr)