Farouk Arnaz, Ezra Sihite & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The naming of two police generals as suspects in a corruption case has once again revived the national debate about whether the 13-year reform process has helped improve accountability in the police force.
When the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named two active-duty police generals suspects in a graft case on Tuesday, activists hoped this was a sign the police were no longer above the law.
Poengky Indarti, executive director of the human rights group Imparsial, said on Thursday that internal reforms had not gone far enough to breed a new generation of police officers who were "professional, non-militaristic and not corrupt." "The reforms seem to have stalled along the way. They haven't been carried out to completion," she said.
She added this could be seen in continuing cases of police brutality against civilians, widespread allegations of graft, claims of complicity with illegal loggers, wrongful arrests, siding with religious hard-liners and torture allegations.
"At the moment, the concept of justice comes at a price," Poengky said. "The law only ever seems to be fully enforced against the little people, but loses its force when it comes to those in power."
Eva Kusuma Sundari, a legislator with House of Representatives Commission III, overseeing legal affairs, agreed that the reforms that began with the police's split from the military in 1999 had not yielded the desired results.
"Three months ago, National Police Chief [Gen. Timur Pradopo] stated his commitment to eradicating corruption," she said. This commitment, she went on, is clearly lacking as seen in the recent revelations of alleged police corruption in connection to a Rp 197 billion ($21 million) project to procure driving simulators.
The two police generals named as suspects this week were the former chief of the traffic police and the current deputy chief of the division.
This is not the first time police officers have been linked to bribes or markups. In one instance, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) flagged bank accounts of dozens of police officers reportedly containing hundreds of billions of rupiah. A number of retired police generals have been jailed or named suspects in corruption cases.
In 2008, former National Police Chief Gen. Rusdihardjo was sentenced to two years for corruption. Two years earlier, a former National Police chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung, received one and a half years in prison for accepting bribes in the BNI scandal. Another former chief of detectives, Susno Duaji, was sentenced to more than three years in another graft case.
Police officers refused to allow KPK officials investigating the current allegations to take away evidence seized from the traffic police headquarters for several hours.
Jamil Mubarok, coordinator of the Indonesian Transportation Society, said this essentially amounted to obstruction of justice on the part of the police – a criminal offense punishable by up to 12 years in prison.
"This should be a wake-up call for the need of a massive overhaul in the police force, which should be pushed by the president and the House," Jamil said. "We need to rethink the status of the police force, weed out the dirty personnel, empower the National Police Commission [an independent watchdog] and so on. "If we leave things as they are, it's possible that this will happen again."