Police-military repeated clashes: The untolf and unsettled old problems

Police-military repeated clashes: The untolf and unsettled old problems

Imanuddin Razak, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

iman@thejakartapost.com

Clashes among security officers have occurred repeatedly in
the country in the past few years. Maybe this is why there was
scant attention given to the latest incident between police and
military personnel in West Kalimantan on Dec. 9, that took the
life of one soldier.

Apart from the West Kalimantan incident, there were at least
four such cases reported this year. More clashes went unreported
due to closed-door settlements among the disputing parties or
simply the media's failure to reveal them.

So frequent are the clashes among the security forces
that no one bothers anymore to question the officers' violent
behavior. This propensity for violence has long led to anxiety
and instability, while their very role is to protect the people.

Some observers and officers have blamed the laws concerning
the separation of the police from the military for the officers'
inclination to violence, saying the law should be reviewed.

Scholars such as Henk Schulte Nordholt traces the roots of
violence in the country to the pre-colonial era, which continues
to today.

Media reports have revealed that many times the clashes among
the security officers were triggered by petty causes, such as
unintended physical contact between a police officer and a
soldier while dancing at a discotheque, or two officers competing
for the heart of one woman.

The dispute would often be individual in origin, but then
solidarity later played a part, fueling the problem as both
individuals would spread his version to his colleagues,
mobilizing them into retaliatory action.

Another simple triggering factor was the one that occurred on
Flores island, East Nusa Tenggara province, in May this year when
a police officer died in a brawl following a violent soccer match
against a military unit team there.

There have also been more fundamental reasons behind such
clashes.

It is a public secret that rivalry between both legal and
illegal businesses have frequently triggered clashes among units
in the military or between military units and police units.

Some owners of entertainment centers in Kota area, West
Jakarta, have repeatedly complained of being the target of
multiple illegal fees taken by the police, the military and even
the local administration. Failure to pay the fees to any one of
the above mentioned units would result in their centers being the
subject of raids and even destruction.

And often new players (in this case new military or police
chiefs assigned to the area) have collected fees without the
knowledge of other old players. This would eventually lead to a
clash as the old players would feel their "rights" were violated.

Another factor is the protection rackets of the police and the
military.

A good example would be the September 2002 clashes between
police and military officers in Binjai, North Sumatra, in which
eight were killed between the two forces. It was reported that
the military unit attacked a police station that was holding a
suspected drug dealer.
Military personnel are known to protect the drug trade in some
provinces.

However, while factors that trigger the clashes could perhaps
be identified, efforts to settle such problems are sometimes
difficult due to the attitude of the superiors of the disputing
officers themselves.

Police and military institutions naturally have clear-cut
disciplinary and operational guidelines that all troops must
obey, otherwise they will face stiff sanctions.

In many cases, the troops do report to their superiors that
they are having problems with other units of the military or
police. But rather than going to the root of the problem and
settling it wisely, the superiors often get emotional and even
order their subordinates to take up arms and attack the opposing
unit.

It is now high time for the police and the military to develop
curricula in their respective academies, mainly in the area of
their skills and capability to quietly win battles without a
single bullet fired and without bloodshed.

It's also time to stop the condoning of engagement of active
military or police officers in any kind of business, legal or
illegal, as such involvement has proved to be a potential trigger
of often lethal disputes among the security officers themselves.

There should of course be measures taken to compensate the
officers, if their businesses are one day put to a halt. But in
any case the decision is not for the military or police alone to
decide.

The police and military should heed the words of the highest
commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI) President Megawati
Soekarnoputri: "Only with good morals can you achieve admirable
leadership ..." Addressing the graduation ceremony of 816 police
and military cadets on Friday at Merdeka Palace, she reiterated
that the country badly needs strong and professional officers to
defend the country's sovereignty and unity.

That goal is far from attainable as long as soldiers and
police officers are busy fighting and killing one another.