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Lawmakers seek better monitoring of Indonesia's police force
Jakarta Globe - February 26, 2014
Carlos Paath, Jakarta – The Indonesian government and legislators have been discussing ways to strengthen monitoring the police force following rampant abuse of power conducted by cops across the country in a number of high-profile cases.
As officials, lawmakers and legal experts discuss revising the 2002 Police Law, many have even been proposing to put the police under the auspices of the Home Ministry, a move flatly rejected by National Police chief Gen. Sutarman.
"The National Police prefer the current condition where we are directly under the president. He or she as the highest executive then delegates some of the security authority to the police," Sutarman said on Wednesday. He said as Indonesia practiced the presidential system, the national police therefore should answer directly to the president.
Neta Pane, chairman of the Indonesia Police Watch, shared Sutarman sentiment, saying placing the police under a ministry would compromise the institution's neutrality.
"You can imagine if the police comes under a ministry and the minister is with a certain political party, the police could be made the party's soldiers," he said adding that the scenario would likely put the opposition figures in danger because the police could abuse their power against them.
The debate on who the police should answer to came during deliberations of the police bill by the legislative council of the House of Representatives. The bill has been included in the priority list of bills, which is expected to be concluded this year.
Adrianus Meliala, a commissioner of the National Police's supervisory commission (Kompolnas), agreed that it would not be possible to push for putting police under the Home Ministry.
"We were asked to finish the draft in April and therefore we will be focusing on strengthening Kompolnas's supervisory function, we won't be focusing on the reposition," he said.
Most experts, activists and legislators agree that the nation must put its police force in check following widespread public complains against police officers who conduct many violations, including accepting bribes, extortion, arbitrary arrests, violence and corruption.
Police behavior again sparked anger when cops in Bandung, West Java, imposed a much criticized night curfew in the light of a deadly brawl in an entertainment center.
The police were criticized after an assault on the vocalist of a popular band in Bandung, who received at least 20 stitches after allegedly being hit on the forehead with a glass bottle by a plainclothes police officer.
According to data compiled by the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) the police shot dead 115 people in 2013. Those killed were often suspects of petty crime or even those exercising their right to freedom of speech and protest.
Hendardi, chairman of PBHI's national membership council, said the watchdog recorded 595 cases of police violence against suspects in 27 provinces last year, with 446 incidents where police officers fired on people with injuries or fatalities recorded.
A number of surveys have consistently found the police to be one of the country's most corrupt institutions.
Weak monitoring
Since separating from the military in 2002, the police have been given a bigger role to play because they will be the ones responsible for any security problems within the country, and answer only to the president.
Fearing that the police may become ever more powerful and uncontrolled, the government established Kompolnas to monitor alleged violations by police officers. However, the current Kompolnas has been criticized as a lame duck without any real power to bring bad cops to justice.
The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) stated that such a weak outfit has caused an increase in the number of human rights violations occurring very year.
Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said the poor supervision was partly caused by the lack of outreach by Kompolnas, because the commissioners could only conduct the monitoring activities from their office in Jakarta.
"Kompolnas members have said that they have started working together with some universities in Indonesia but we hope Kompolnas could create a communication mechanism from the regional to the national level," he said.
Haris said Kompolnas has a strategic role in monitoring the police officers, especially those who have committed violations.
Some of the points being discussed during the deliberation of police law revision include imposing harsher punishments on police officers found to have broken the rules.
Kompolnas chairman M. Nasser said the House had agreed on the need to create a professional, independent and clean force. "This could be started by moving it from government control. Kompolnas should have the proper function and authority to conduct investigations and to impose sanctions on officers committing violations and crimes," he said.
He agreed that Kompolnas had to be expanded gradually, with at least a branch in every province so that they could monitor police conduct in the regions.
Internal moves
Sutarman said the police were paying special attention to the quality of future officers who would be recruited, vowing to crack down on bribery in the recruitment process to the police academy. "A competence-based management system should be implemented," the national police chief said.
Many people have also complained about the amount of money they have to pay to enter the academy. Some of them claim that they have to pay up to Rp 300 million ($26,000) for the academy and an additional Rp 150 million for the nine-month police training course.
With a monthly salary of Rp 2 million to Rp 5 million, many officers have taken to accepting bribes, conducted extortion or stolen state money to recoup the money they had spent to become officers. Sutarman promised that the recruitment process would in future be open to public supervision from registration to the conclusion.
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