Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) has called on the House of Representatives to make an assessment of the performance of outgoing National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo before naming his successor.

IPW chair Neta S. Pane said on Tuesday that the House's Commission III, overseeing law and human rights, needed to run an evaluation as to whether Timur had fulfilled all the promises he made three years ago when he underwent the fit-and-proper test for his current post.

"The evaluation should measure Timur's success or failure in instilling professionalism within the force. Commission III must conduct the evaluation. If not, what's the point of the fit-and-proper test?" Neta said.

Commission III has wrapped up conducting the fit-and-proper test for National Police criminal investigations chief Comr. Gen. Sutarman, who has been named by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the sole candidate to replace Timur.

The commission is set to announce its decision whether to approve or reject Sutarman's nomination on Thursday.

Timur responded to IPW's demand, by saying that the House had regularly assessed his performance. "In every hearing at the House, Commission III does an evaluation of me," he said after performing Idul Adha prayers in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Separately, National Police Commission (Kompolnas) member Edi S. Hasibuan said that the commission was now writing its report to be delivered to Yudhoyono on Timur's performance. "We see some achievements and several issues that need to be improved, such as the police's performance in handling corruption cases, providing a service to the public and better career management for their personnel," Edi said.

Meanwhile, with the nomination of Sutarman close to being endorsed by the House, rights groups have stepped up their criticism of Yudhoyono's decision not to provide information to the public on why Sutarman was the sole candidate for the position.

The National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) called on Commission III to demand the President account for the nomination. "We hope Commission III will not just be a rubber stamp for the President in the National Police chief selection process," said Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar on Sunday.

Kontras said that given Sutarman's resume, he should not be the only candidate for the job.

Haris said that Sutarman oversaw a number of high-profile cases that had not been solved while he served as the Jakarta Police chief between 2010 and 2011. "They include a Molotov cocktail attack on the office of Tempo weekly and the assault on [anti-graft] activist Tama S. Langkun," Haris said.

Bambang Widodo Umar, a criminologist at the University of Indonesia, however said that the appointment of a new police chief was by nature political, given that the process had to involve the House. "But generally speaking, the police force has to be an institution free from day-to-day politics," he said.

When asked whether the President should name other candidates, Bambang said that there was no stipulation on the least number of nominees. Bambang said that the police should improve its merit-based system to lessen subjectivity in promoting police officers, from junior officers to three-star generals. (asw)