Police reform: of hermaphrodites and transvestites

Police reform: of hermaphrodites and transvestites

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A middle-aged lady carrying a stack of papers rushes into the
National Police Headquarters' detective building, mumbling almost
hysterically as bystanders try to understand.

After a while, the lady, introducing herself as Christina, 54,
leaves the building murmuring even louder, saying that she does
not know where else to go if the police ignore her complaint.

"My neighbor has been attacking my house for years. I have
filed complaints since 1996 to the sub-district, district and
city police but nothing has been done so far," she says with
confused eyes looking around.

She then asks people around what she must do to protect
herself from her neighbor.

"I can't stand it anymore. Today, my neighbor demolished the
wall separating our houses," she says while showing copies of
complaint letters she had filed to the police.

"Has anybody died? Have you given the police any 'financial
incentive' when making the complaints?" one of the reporters
seated in front of the building asks her.

Christina looks to the reporter with a naive face, trying to
understand the question.

Christina's case exemplifies the sluggish response by police,
who often brag about being the servant and vanguard of the
people, with regard to complaints filed by the public at large.

"Our surveys reveal that there is an increase in criminal
cases but a decrease in the rate of cases completed this year
compared to last year," Police Watch chairman Rashid H. Lubis
tells The Jakarta Post.

The Surabaya police in East Java, for example, solve only one
or two cases out of 30 cases reported every week, according to
the survey. In Surakarta, with fewer cases reported, police can
solve only one case on average each week.

This performance is reflected also in corruption cases at the
national level. The State Audit Body (BPK) has reported 50 cases
to the police but so far only 3 cases have gone to court this
year.

Lubis also complains that crimes committed by police personnel
have increased over the past year. According to the Police Watch
survey, there were 200 cases per month, on average, in the first
three months of 2003 compared to only 174 cases per month in
2002.

"The saddest thing is that there is an increase in crimes
being committed by police officers in many areas across the
country. For example, Jakarta police personnel have reportedly
committed 234 criminal acts through the first 11 months of this
year, an increase from 206 in all of last year," Lubis says.

The public's perception of the police, however, has tended to
improve, thanks to their success in investigating the Bali
bombings on Oct. 12, 2002 and the JW Marriott Hotel attacks in
Jakarta on Aug. 5, 2003.

A poll by Kompas newspaper in June showed that the number of
people who hold a good image about the police in terms of their
behavior as professionals and the ability to handle cases
increased to 41.2 percent in 2003 from 26.6 percent in 2002,
while people who have a bad image of the institution decreased to
47.4 percent from 62.9 percent in 2002.

"We must acknowledge that the police have successfully solved
several cases, especially high-profile terrorism cases in Bali
and at the Marriott," says Lubis.

Police have arrested over 50 suspects in the two incidents,
which have been blamed on the regional terrorist network Jamaah
Islamiyah (JI). Police have so far arrested over 50 people for
their alleged roles in the blasts that killed more 200 people and
injured over 250,000 others. Three of the 30 suspects in the Bali
bombing have been sentenced to death.

With their successful investigation into the Bali and Marriott
attacks, public opinion on the professionalism of police also has
moved to a favorable outlook to 39 percent from 19.3 percent last
year.

Unfortunately, people's perception about the ability of police
to handle corruption cases remains very low, with only 6 percent
saying that police can resolve the cases properly down from over
10 percent last year.

Adrianus Meliala, a noted criminologist from the University of
Indonesia, however, questioned the success of the police in
tracking down members of JI terrorist network in the country,
saying that police should be more concerned with crime prevention
than crime solving.

"They should prevent crimes from taking place because this is
more important than solving existing cases. Failing to do so
leads to recurrences of many crimes," Adrianus says.

He stresses that terrorism cases and other unusual cases
distract police from their regular task of serving and protecting
the public as well as handling day-to-day complaints.

"Their successes have been achieved at the expense of their
regular duty because with the existing personnel, funds and
equipment police can't do their regular tasks properly," says
Adrianus, who is also an advisor to National Police chief Gen.
Da'i Bachtiar.

Adrianus, however, acknowledges that it is not realistic to
put high expectations on the police force with the current
limited funding.

"Only 30 percent of the police budget is provided by the State
Budget. The remaining 70 percent have to be covered by other
sources," he says.

According to Adrianus, budget constraints have pushed police
to engage in illegal activities such as extortion, blackmail and
sponsoring illicit activities.

"Forget about a good police force if we can't solve the
current problem of funding," Adrianus stresses.

Lubis suggests that local administrations allocate a certain
amount of their budgets for police in their respective regencies.

"The Depok city council has provided extra funding for the
Depok police for two years now. Therefore, the council can ask
police to secure areas based on people's need and they will
respond," said Lubis.

He, however, warns that such cooperation -- in this country --
could lead to possible collusion between the police and the local
government officials.

Funding is not the only problem the police have. A lack of
external control and professionalism, including the old mentality
and culture and inadequate capability, have been pinpointed as
some of major problems faced by the country's police force.

"Most police personnel live with their old culture such as the
habit to be served rather than serving and the rigid bottom-up
style. These chronic habits die hard because they enjoy the
habits," says Adrianus.

Meanwhile, Lubis stresses the importance of police personnel's
expertise in doing their every day work, saying that the nine-
month police training course is inadequate to produce qualified
personnel.

"We can't expect to have ready-to-use personnel in nine
months. In fact, they will interact with more educated members of
the society. In addition, the current practice of giving only
three bullets for each personnel to practice shooting is far from
enough. Not surprisingly, many police personnel misfire or shoot
innocent bystanders when an actual crime is taking place," says
Lubis.

Successfully carrying out their daily duties is one thing,
while controlling their other activities and preventing the law
enforcers from breaking the law is another thing. As a result of
that dilemma, Adrianus and Lubis agree that greater external
control should be imposed on the police institution.

"The police are currently like hermaphrodites, in the sense
that they do all the functions themselves, like planning,
budgeting, executing and controlling their activities. Almost no
public access and control of the institution is done by external
agencies," says Adrianus.

He also says that the national government institutions like
the President's office or the House are not able monitor the
police effectively because they have insufficient data or
knowledge about how the police work. According to Adrianus, other
controlling parties such as non-governmental organizations and
the press can only put a limited amount of pressure on them, but
do not have any real power to affect the police's performance.

Adrianus stresses the importance of real reform within the
police force to address the problems. He adds that the existing
reform path currently underway by the police is far from adequate
since there is no timeframe and no benchmarks to measure or
assess the progress of such reforms. He also says that six years
after the reformasi movement began, the police are still muddling
through a slow transition.

"Reforms should deal with the structure and culture of the
police as well as laws that regulate the police. Structural and
regulatory reforms have been done quite well so far. They
(police) should now focus on the cultural reform," says Adrianus.

Lubis and Adrianus, however, have different views on how to
address the lack of external control of the police. Lubis is
optimistic about the effectiveness of the planned Police
Commission -- an independent body to supervise the police --
while Adrianus doubts it will be effective.

"Compared to other supervisory bodies such as the
Anticorruption and Ombudsman Commissions, the planned Police
Commission is a "transvestite" body because, in the end, it is
just a dressed up advisory body that reports to the President,"
Adrianus argues.