Police plan of new rank terms hailed

JAKARTA (JP): An executive of the newly founded Indonesian Police Watch said on Sunday that he welcomed the police initiative to introduce new ranking terminology but said that it's not an urgent issue.

"For me, as a member of the public, what's more important is the performance of the police force," Adnan Pandupraja told The Jakarta Post.

Changing the names of police ranks should be followed with a significant changing in the quality of the police service, said Adnan of the Indonesian Police Watch from the School of Law at the University of Indonesia.

As reported earlier, the new ranking terms -- already used by many countries and dubbed as the international standard -- would be effective as of July 1 when the force commemorated its 54th anniversary.

Under the new terminology, four-star generals will be known as commissioners, lieutenant generals as deputy commissioners, major generals as assistant commissioners, and brigadier generals as commandants.

The term colonel will be replaced with senior intendant, lieutenant colonel with super intendant, major with assistant super intendant, captain with senior inspector, first lieutenant with first inspector and second lieutenant will change to second inspector.

According to Adnan, the use of new terminology is in accordance with the police's separation from the military.

"The adoption of the new system is one of the police's efforts to erase its association with TNI (the Indonesian Military)," Adnan said.

The police force has been separated from the armed forces (ABRI), or the Indonesian National Soldiers (TNI) as it has been renamed, since April 1, 1999. But the police force is still under the command of the Minister of Defense and Security.

The separation was meant to establish the police's independence from the military in the sense of putting it in its proper place as guardian of public order and security and as a law-enforcement agency.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dadang Garnida shared Adnan's opinion but said that the new terminology would also eliminate difficulties faced by the Indonesian police in communicating with their counterparts from foreign countries.

"As an example, when a police officer is sent abroad to study, it's funny if we have to give a translation of every rank in our terminology to make them understand," Dadang said.

Dadang said that the change would initially confuse the public but he said that his office would help to make people familiar with the new system. (08)