Time to Overhaul the Police

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Prabowo is keeping the police untouched. The institution is increasingly making the people uneasy.

PRESIDENT Prabowo Subianto should take resolute action against the  (Polri) following a number of criminal actions and violations by officers. One hundred days is enough time for Prabowo to see the performance of the Polri that is making the people increasingly uneasy.

One shocking incident was the  to death of Brig. Yosua Hutabarat by his own superior officer, Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo. Then there was the narcotics case involving Insp. Gen. Teddy Minahasa, the  of Djakarta Warehouse Project audience members, and most recently the revelations of extortion that have embroiled former Chief of the South Jakarta Criminal Investigation Unit Adj. Sr. Comr. Bintoro.

Bintoro is alleged to have taken a bribe while he, as Chief of the South Jakarta Police Criminal Investigation Unit, was handling the case involving the murder and the rape of a 16-year-old girl with the initials FA. Two suspects, Arif Nugroho and Muhammad Bayu Hartoyo, claim they were asked to pay Rp20 billion in order for the investigation into their involvement in the case to be stopped.

It is believed that others were involved in this alleged extortion besides Bintoro, including Adj. Sr. Comr. Gogo Galesung and three other police officers. And according to an investigation by this magazine, even Chief of South Jakarta Police Sr. Comr. Ade Rahmat Idnal may have received some of the bribe money.

Seemingly incapable of improving, police officers continue to involve themselves in criminal activities in everything they do. Their conduct seems only to reinforce the truth behind an old joke once repeated by President Abdurrahman Wahid, alias Gus Dur. He said that there were only three honest police officers in this country: Hoegeng Iman Santoso (Polri Chief from 1968 to 1971), police statues, and ‘sleeping policeman’ or street bumps.

And 25 years after Gus Dur took Polri out of the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI), it seems that reforms are further away than ever. Polri  sound good as slogans but simply remain on paper and fail to be implemented.

The Bintoro case and others are indications of a breakdown of the system and culture within the police. Punishments and sanctions for those guilty of abuses are not enough to heal the scars on the face of the institution. There must be comprehensive reforms within Polri if we want to restore the dignity of the institution in line with the aims of the Reformasi era.

The fact that these wrongdoings are allowed to continue shows inconsistency in the application of punishment and in the principle of meritocracy in Polri. This is despite the fact that in bureaucratic reform, firm and consistent law enforcement is a key element to realizing institutions that are clean and professional.

Reforms within Polri must go beyond oversight ending in sanctions. They must extend to systemic improvements in areas from recruitment and capacity building to working practices and the merit-based promotion system. The failure of the oversight process, both internally and externally, has also led to impunity for those doing wrong.

We no longer want to hear the old song, “if you report a lost chicken to the police, you’ll end up losing a cow.” This means that dealing with the police only leads to greater losses because officers demand money to follow up on our reports and complaints.

The people still need a police force in many aspects of life. Concrete and comprehensive improvements must not be delayed, they should start immediately. Law enforcement, maintenance of law and order, and public service must be transformed in a better direction in order to realize the ideals of the  movement.