Rabby Pramudatama and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Oblivious to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's order for the police to stay out of the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) business, the National Police headquarters has decided to withdraw Comr. Novel Baswedan and 12 other officers seconded to the antigraft body.
The move came only two days after the KPK locked up Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, the main suspect in the driving simulator graft scandal at the National Police Traffi c Corps (Korlantas).
KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqqodas confirmed on Wednesday that the National Police made the request in a letter dated Nov. 30. In the letter, the police decided not to extend the tenure of its 13 investigators seconded to the KPK, including Novel, whose terms expire in January 2013.
Chief of the National Police Criminal Investigation Directorate (Bareskrim), Comr. Gen. Sutarman said that the decision was firm. Sutarman said he was aware that Novel had opted to become a permanent member of staff at the KPK, but insisted that Novel was still a member of the corps.
"Of course he [Novel] can be a permanent investigator with the KPK, but he must first tender his resignation," Sutarman told reporters at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
He said that Novel's future employment with the KPK could be illegal if he failed to submit the official documents for his resignation. "All of us must act according to regulations. Ours say that the 13 investigators must return to the National Police given that their terms expire soon. We can discuss what to do next afterward," Sutarman said.
He said the National Police would not abandon the KPK and had dispatched 30 candidates to be new investigators with the KPK.
Sutarman said that the KPK had not yet responded to the move. Responding to the withdrawal, the KPK said that its only hope to function effectively now was swift, strong action by Yudhoyono to allow the KPK to retain non-police investigators whose terms also expire soon.
"I hope the President will sign the regulation on employment management for KPK staff, including investigators, soon" Busyro said. The KPK sent a complete draft revision of the decree to the President in early November, but has received no response yet from the Presidential Palace.
"If the President signs [the regulation], it will solve most of our problems," Busyro said. According to the KPK, Government Regulation No. 63/2005 concerning the KPK's human resources management has been in deliberation since 2010, and the latest draft was completed in November.
Regulation No. 63/2005 stipulates that investigators sign four-year contracts and can be offered tenures after eight years.
In 2010, the National Police issued a rule requiring officers seconded to the KPK to renew their assignments on an annual basis. In the draft amendment, the KPK would be allowed to sign 12-year contracts with investigators.
Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha denied that Yudhoyono had failed to follow through on his promise to immediately sign the new regulation on the tenure extension of KPK investigators.
"The National Police have their own policy on when they want to withdraw their investigators currently seconded to the KPK. I don't see it as a slight toward the President's instruction," he told reporters.
[Bagus BT Saragih contributed to this report.]