Prabowo Ensures Rational Decisions for Polri Reforms
President Prabowo Subianto has stated that the government will study the recommendations of the Commission for Accelerating Indonesian Police Reform regarding efforts to improve the police institution. He assured that they will examine which measures can be implemented immediately and which should be postponed, taking various aspects into consideration.
This statement from Prabowo responds to public doubts about the government’s commitment to implementing the recommendations produced by the Polri Reform Commission for corrective actions within the police institution. The Head of State explained this during a roundtable discussion with several journalists and experts in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java, on Tuesday, 17 March 2026.
According to Prabowo, the state must have competent, clean, and credible law enforcement institutions. “We will make rational decisions. The state needs professional law enforcement institutions that are clean, non-corrupt, and full of integrity; that is essential,” he said, quoted from an interview video shared by the Presidential Secretariat on Sunday, 22 March 2026.
Prabowo stated that improving the police institution does not always have to go through a reform team. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the Commission for Accelerating Polri Reform is a crucial instrument. “The desire to improve all institutions, including the police, does not solely have to come from a reform committee, but the reform committee is a very important tool,” Prabowo remarked.
According to Prabowo, since he was elected by the people and inaugurated as President, he has sworn to improve the nation’s condition. One of the state transformation efforts is through improving law enforcement instruments. “So if I am serious about my oath, I must improve the conditions that are not good, including the conditions in our institutions,” he said.
He also assessed that the bad image of law enforcement institutions is caused by the actions of some empowered individuals. According to the President, the public must also be fair in evaluating the performance of state institutions—in this case, not limited to the police. “So I say this, we must also be fair; it’s always a drop of ink spoiling a pot of milk. Maybe some individuals, but they have power, they can do as they please. But hundreds of thousands of other police officers get a bad name,” he stated.
Therefore, Prabowo gives every institution the opportunity to conduct internal corrections first, before the government takes further steps. He exemplified the audit mechanism. In leadership, he said, an audit step is sometimes the best way.
“It’s the same with audits. If the audit is not resolved, it comes to inform the leader, ‘Hey, you’re not right. Can you fix yourself? If you fix yourself, I’ll give you a chance, three months to fix it.’ If it’s still lacking, another three months,” he explained.
The Commission for Accelerating Polri Reform has compiled many recommendations for improving the police institution. However, the official report to President Prabowo Subianto will focus on four main proposals.
The Commission also targets internal police regulation improvements to run until 2029. Chairman of the Commission for Accelerating Polri Reform, Jimly Asshiddiqie, said that Polri reform cannot happen quickly because it involves many internal rules. “There are eight Polri Regulations and twenty-two Chief of Police Regulations that need to be revised,” Jimly said when met in the Kuningan area, South Jakarta, on Saturday, 7 February 2026.
Beyond that, the commission is also preparing internal reform agendas that are technical and medium-term in nature. According to Jimly, the commission has drawn up a reform roadmap so that the programme runs consistently until the end of Prabowo’s government term. This roadmap allows the current Indonesian Police Chief, General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, or the next police chief, to continue the reform agenda without changes in policy direction.