Tommy's arrest: Police triumph or engineering?

K. Basrie, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After so many years of being cheated and manipulated by those in power, the public finds it very hard to believe any success story achieved by anyone in power or by any state institution. The only thing that comes to mind is doubt.

Instead of official statements and statistics released in media conferences, people tend to accept the unofficial news. To those in power, the latter version is nothing but groundless rumors. Meanwhile, the public has its own judgment. Most of the time the unofficial news is quite enjoyable, but sometimes "rumors" prove the truth.

When the police announced the arrest of Hutomo Mandala Putra, alias "Tommy" Soeharto, last Wednesday, distrust over the police success story immediately emerged.

Many, of course, salute the work of the Cobra team from the Jakarta Police detectives directorate.

But many also suspect a well-organized scenario behind the spectacular arrest of Tommy, who was once a very rich businessman and an untouchable who was later tagged by police as the country's most wanted suspected criminal.

For many, the arrest was quite elegant. It occurred just one day before the handover of the top position of the National Police, from Gen. Suroyo Bimantoro, 55, to Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, 51.

Such a high-profile case offers an opportunity to look into the workings within the Indonesian police from behind the scenes.

When Abdurrahman Wahid was in power, this country witnessed a rare period of sour relations between the president and the police, then led by Bimantoro. It was also under his leadership that friction within the corps reached its peak.

Upset with Abdurrahman, who eagerly wanted to fire him from the post, Bimantoro then seemingly got closer to his successor, Megawati Soekarnoputri.

But the general's smile could not hide his gloom when Megawati refused to extend his term as police chief due to his age, which had already reached 55, the official retiring age.

The names he proposed for his successors, including Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Mochammad Sofjan Jacoeb, were also rejected. Sofjan was among the several police generals who firmly stood behind Bimantoro in the open dispute with then president Abdurrahman.

The arrest of Tommy could be seen as a blow to President Megawati since Bimantoro proved that his golden boy, Sofjan, finally managed to bloodlessly capture the country's most wanted suspected criminal.

Wednesday's arrest could also be interpreted as high class mockery to welcome the new police chief, Gen. Da'i, who had earned the President's strong support to occupy the top police post.

Even Abdurrahman, the former controversial president, insisted on Friday that Bimantoro actually had the answers on why the arrest of Tommy could not be carried out until recently.

Since the beginning, Bimantoro, who had attended at least two Interpol meetings on organized crime in Italy and France, repeatedly stated that Tommy's arrest was just "a matter of time."

Bimantoro may have expected that Tommy's arrest might have persuaded the President or the legislative body to offer him a better civilian post and help promote Sofjan to a higher position in the corps.

But the main question of why the smooth arrest happened so suddenly will probably remain unanswered for many.

An honest explanation has been disclosed by the Cobra team, whose 25 members have been promoted. But the true answer, which remains a mystery to some, lies in the hands of the actors: Bimantoro, Sofjan and probably a few others, like Tommy, his lawyer Elza Syarief, and former president Abdurrahman.

A few days after going into hiding, Tommy -- through his lawyer -- reportedly planned to give himself up peacefully to the Jakarta Police at a five-star hotel here. He suddenly canceled the plan after a former noted hoodlum threatened to teach him a lesson in prison later.

Tommy is now being grilled by Jakarta detectives over his alleged role in the murder of Supreme Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, illegal possession of weapons, a series of bombings in the capital, and contempt of court for his fleeing the 18- month jail sentence.

The police have repeatedly shown their disappointment and confusion at the public's suspicion over Tommy's arrest. But again, no one can blame the public for its "choice of truth." Go to the streets, or even the police stations, corrupt officers -- from the lowest to the top ranks -- are easy to find and deal with.

For decades, the police have always blamed their low salary on the government, forcing them into accepting bribes. But the public was stunned when the police announced that they had spent Rp 6 billion of "nonbudgetary funds" of the Jakarta Police, to find, detect and arrest Tommy.

If the police want to shift the public's image of the "good cop and bad cop," they need to change themselves. All of the 175,000-plus police personnel, particularly those at the senior levels, must improve the corps' negative image.

The police say they cannot be expected to be angels amid the notoriously corrupt civil service and the military. But they should not look to either institution to reinvent themselves. Otherwise, all the success stories of the police will be received with skepticism by the public.

The massive coverage of Tommy in custody has brought benefits to others, at least House Speaker Akbar Tandjung and his Golkar party, since many media temporarily put him and his Bulog scam to one side.

The public hopes that the arrest of the youngest son of former president Soeharto is not just simply a year-end show to be soon forgotten.

As of today, the public -- following Tommy's arrest -- can only remember one thing -- the sight of the Jakarta Police chief giving the smiling Tommy a big bear hug.