Rusdihardjo new police chief

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid told new National Police chief Lt. Gen. Rusdihardjo on Tuesday to concentrate his force on maintaining security and public order and abandoning its military-like intelligence operations.

"Police must handle cases based on investigation results, but not on intelligence activities," the President said before the induction of the new police chief by Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri at State Palace.

The Vice President swore in Rusdihardjo due to the President's sight problem. Megawati smiled when Rusdihardjo failed to repeat his oath of loyalty to the state. She repeated the sentence again.

This was the President's third time to install National Military (TNI) and National Police leaders. Soon after his election in October, he appointed Admiral Widodo to replace Gen. Wiranto as TNI chief. Last month, he promoted Gen. Tyasno Sudarto to succeed Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo as Army chief.

Rusdihardjo, the chief of the National Police Staff and Leadership School (Sespim) in Bandung, West Java, replaces Gen. Roesmanhadi. Promoted to lieutenant general, Rusdihardjo, 55, will take his new position after the Idul Fitri holidays.

It is not clear yet as to which new position Roesmanhadi will occupy in the police. He is still two years away from the mandatory retirement age of 55.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Erald Dotulong said on Tuesday that he received the news from Gen. Roesmanhadi on Tuesday morning.

"We were all shocked here. Pak Rusdihardjo is, of course, a great choice, but we all expected either Maj. Gen. Bimantoro, the operational affairs assistant to the National Police chief, or Maj. Gen. Bibit Rianto, the expert staff member working with the National Police chief," Erald told The Jakarta Post.

"Gus Dur (Abdurrahman), I guess, wouldn't be Gus Dur otherwise."

Born in Solo, Central Java on July 7, 1945, Rusdihardjo has spent most of his police career as a field detective, particularly specializing in the narcotics division.

"He is a real guy in the field ... a great detective, particularly in the field of narcotics," Erald said.

Like Roesmanhadi, Rusdihardjo is a 1967 graduate of the National Police Academy. Rusdihardjo has had specialized training overseas to deal with, among other things, narcotics and antiterrorism.

This includes the Narcotics Law Enforcement Training Course in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Narcotics Prevention of Offenders in Tokyo, Japan.

He is a graduate of the Advance International Narcotics School in Washington, United States. He took Asian studies in Conspiracy Investigations in Manila, the Philippines and the Asian Senior Police Officer course at the Royal Malaysian Police College in Kuala Lubu, Malaysia.

Rusdihardjo also took a crisis management and antiterrorist training program in Washington.

Before taking the position of Sespim chief in 1997, Rusdihardjo was the National Police detectives director beginning in 1993.

Gen. (ret) Awaloeddin Djamin, who was the National Police chief from 1978 to 1982, said on Tuesday that Rusdihardjo had his work cut out for him, not only as police chief, but also as the commander of over 187,000 police officers nationwide.

"He is a great detective, I know that firsthand. He was in the detectives division when I was still at the National Police. But however great any police chief might be, he is nothing without his staff, his police officers," Awaloeddin told reporters at his residence on Jl. Daha III in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta.

"The police will be under the command of the President this year. The police must start equipping, by way of education and facilities, police precincts nationwide, since they will be the operational command posts," Awaloeddin said.

Rusdihardjo, he added, was one of the select candidates. Others included Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman, Central Java Police chief Maj. Gen. Nurfaizi, Bibit and Bimantoro, who were considered to have the potential to lead the National Police.

"The new chief must be able to maintain good relations with the Army, despite all the pain it caused us by taking away our grants and opportunities to better facilitate our forces. We need more forces in the field."

Awaloeddin, who is also head of the National Police chief's supervisory body, added that narcotics, arson, street crime and violence remain the main priorities of the National Police.

"We all wish him the best of luck." (prb/ylt)