Who owns the police?

Who owns the police?

Many claim that we are a fast-changing society without
realizing that some aspects of it have refused to modernize. One
notable example is that objectionable attitudes and practices
within our police force, the most talked-about component of the
Armed Forces (ABRI), have changed little.

Police officers are supposed to be close to the people because
it is their job to protect them. But the relationship between the
two is not as good as should be expected.

Instances of police brutality continue to be commonplace,
while controversial murder cases often linger unsolved for years.
The torture and brutal murder of Marsinah, a female labor
activist in East Java, in 1993 is one such case that has even
drawn international attention. The kidnapping and murder of a
journalist in Yogyakarta, Central Java, in 1996 after he wrote a
report on the alleged corrupt practices of a high-ranking regency
official is yet another. Such cases make people question: Who do
the police think they are being paid to protect?

When the government decided in 1995 to abolish a requirement
forcing organizers of public gatherings to obtain a police permit
in advance, the people believed that the times in which the
police had refused to respect them had ended.

They were wrong. Recent incidents in which police have tried
to curb proreform activities have shown that many officers feel
they still live in the Soeharto era in which they could act
freely since the regime prioritized stability over human rights.

With such an abysmal human rights record, it came as no
surprise that the well-respected National Commission on Human
Rights recently asked the House of Representatives to review the
police force's status. The committee has argued that the police
should no longer be a "political tool" of the government and
ABRI. "People everywhere demand that their police be professional
in serving and protecting the public, instead of being a mere
security tool for the power holder," said Satjipto Rahardjo, a
commission member attending a hearing with House Commission I for
defense and security, law, politics and information.

Satjipto, who is also a senior law professor and observer of
police politics, said the police must now end their militaristic
way of handling problems. Instead, he argued, it should follow a
doctrine that is entirely different from that of the military.

The call sounds nothing but logical and timely to us amid the
loud public cries for total reform. The incorporation of the
police into ABRI was decided nearly four decades ago under the
administration of then president Sukarno, who liked to appear in
smashing military uniform and wanted to see that not only the
Army, Navy and Air Force wielded military status, but also the
police.

Gone were the early independent years when the police operated
among the people under the coordination of the minister of home
affairs. In the years that followed, it was common to see the
police mobile brigade parade with tanks and armored vehicles in
Jakarta's streets while some of their officers showed off
paratrooper wings on their uniforms. The shift created a new
class of uniformed group that became distant from the people it
was intended to protect. It also caused a decline in
professionalism in the police force.

We think it is high time that the police be returned to the
people. The idea voiced by the human rights committee had
actually been widely, but silently, discussed in public circles
during Soeharto's presidency. We hope the House will take serious
steps to reform the police force because at present, the status
of the force is impeding the nation's move toward a more modern
society.