The changing role of the police

The changing role of the police

By Anton Tabah

JAKARTA (JP): The role of members of society as both subjects
and objects cannot be separated. The police was born due to the
existence of the society, but society also needs the presence of
police to maintain security and order.

This was the ancient Greek philosophy of police existence
until the modern theory was born. A country may have no armed
forces, but no country is without a police force. This is because
a police force is in charge of maintaining order, protecting
society and enforcing law in any state.

The foundation of the state in history supports this theory. A
good example is the deal for the establishment of the Palestine
state recently and how it specifically covers the police force.
This example proves an undeniable historical fact of the police's
importance.

The Palestine story mirrors that of the Indonesian Police
force. The country's oldest organization was born on 19 August,
1945, only two days after the proclamation of the country's
independence. It was created by the Committee of the Indonesian
Independence Preparation.

Several theories on law enforcement and justice were
formulated before Christ was born. These have changed with the
passage of time, but studies on law began systematically in the
18th century. These have produced the law theories of Brissot de
Warfile (1781), Emile Durkheim (1858) and Roscau Pound and Alan
Hunt (1978). They remain relevant today.

The effectiveness of law enforcement is dependent on the
working of the five pillars of law, namely the legal apparatus,
personnel, structure, bureaucracy and society. Professor Reckless
put forward the effectiveness of law enforcement in 3 systems.
Those are systems of police organization, law and justice.
Professor Reckless concludes that the effectiveness of law
enforcement is influenced mainly by political will. The law can
be fully enforced, collapse or implemented half-heartedly. The
police has an important role in the implementation, and experts
suggest that a nation should have a strong police force in order
to ensure law enforcement.

How is law enforcement in Indonesia? First, let us observe the
components of law her. Legal certainty (Rechtsicherheit),
benefits (Zweckmassigkeit) and the law can justify whether the
law is enforced or ignored, healthy or sick. If the law is sick,
it means it is not enforced properly. The impact is the
disturbance of national stability. All people should be equal
before the law.

In this philosophical term of reference, we call law
enforcement a culture of law. In the traditional saying "Datan
mawas kadang sentono uger dosa kapidono", or, literally,
regardless of whether the culprity is a friend or relative, he
must bear responsibility for his actions. Explicitly, tradition
teaches that collusion and nepotism must be banished. This kind
of culture exists by playing on our feelings of shame. It is the
highest cultural value which is guided by the wisdom of the body.
If is part of the Holy Koran's teachings: "If Fatimah (my
daughter) commits theft, for sure I will cut off her hand" (Ad
Hadiths).

Our legal political references are clear. As written in one of
the articles of the 1945 Constitution, every citizen is equal
before the law. The political aspirations of the people are
mentioned in the Decree of the People Consultative Council dated
9th March 1993, stating: "The law material should be a foundation
to guarantee the society in order to enjoy the law certainty,
order and protection based on justice and truth..."

Theoretically, law in Indonesia contains philosophical,
judiciary and social value. In practice, the law faces many
constraints. These include ineffective legal apparatus,
delinquent officers, ineffiencient structure and system of
justice. In other words, the law is ailing.

This sickness can be seen through the failure of the law
mechanism components (law certainly, benefit and justice). The
three components of law enforcement can be called healthy if the
justice system works properly. Whoever is found guilty should be
punished, essential to ensuring non-discrimination.

There are also a lot of constraints on the legal apparatus.
The civil code is a colonial product which has little relevance
to the national culture. It, naturally, failed to anticipate
social and technological developments. For example, in the case
of liquor and sex crimes, which are viewed as crimes without
victims. In actuality, the loss and danger from these kinds of
crimes could effectively ruin the nation.

The sickness of the law will bring to the fore the
ineffectiveness of the justice system and undermine the respect
of the servicemen. Collusion, corruption and harassment of
judges, as well as people versus the government, should be noted.

Operational constraints need more attention. Crime investiga
tion is different to business negotiations. Investigations take
weeks, days or months, requiring considerable funds and
personnel.

The case of Oki, the Indonesian citizen accused of murdering
three people in Los Angeles, is one example. Officially, the fund
available to investigate this case was only Rp 50,000 (US$22.00).
We all know that the complexities of the case and its logistics
meant the costs actually ran into the millions of rupiah.

Since there is no proper fund to support the job, police
officers raise funds among themselves to speed up investigation
even though they should spend from their relatively low salaries.
This happens because the police feel special satisfaction in
concluding an investigation.

This is also true for the police budget for essentials like
gas. This is done routinely because it is the identity of the
police force, and budgets are woefully inadequate.

An internal constraint of the police force is that
professionalism is still relatively poor. The society is
developing rapidly, but it is not balanced by improvement of the
police professionalism. It makes obstacles to law enforcement
more complex. The public's complaints of the stifling bureaucracy
are growing louder.

There is another constraint, more on technical aspects, but
quite disturbing to the effectiveness of law enforcement. The
technical constraint is the integration between executive and
legislative powers, starting from the design up to the
implementation of law. It is not well integrated to this day.

Many cases, including the three-in-one traffic policy and
regulations on alcoholic beverages, show this. Most people would
agree with the regulations, but the small minority is more vocal
in its rejection. Thus, we have a silent majority.

This lack of integration is evident in the society's security
and order which is written, politically, as follows: The society
security and order system (basically conducted by police force)
will be developed and prioritize in the prevention and resistance
of security and order disturbance. The appreciation of the
society on security and order will be developed in an integrated
manner (National Guidance Decree, Armed Forces Field Article 1).

In practice, political will is still lacking.

During the New Order government, the police's role has
developed. It now involves three state administrations, unique in
this country. The Indonesian Police is involved in the systems of
public, security and defense, and criminal justice administra
tions. The Indonesian police, as a bureaucratic body, is very
transparent and has almost no boundaries with society. Therefore,
it might be true that the police image is not deteriorating. The
real issue is that the demands of society are increasing but this
is not matched by police professionalism.

The operation of the police task faces at least nine taxing
problems constraints. These are the legal apparatus, structure
and infrastructure, political action, the justice system, the
culture of mikul dhuwur mendhem jero (shoulder high but buried
deep, or literally giving unrelenting praise to officers despite
thier mistakes), professionalism, mentality and the bureaucratic
structure. These must be solved in this era of globalization.

The writer is a columnist and police major based in Semarang.