Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The National Police, commemorating their 70th anniversary on Friday, still face major challenges to reform to become a more professional law enforcement institution.
With an image continually in decline, especially following the criminalization of marginalized communities, the institution is challenged to improve amid strong public sentiment against all police officers throughout the country.
"The police face a heavy task in the future," President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo told an audience during an iftar gathering and anniversary dinner at the National Police headquarters on Friday.
"But I am convinced that it will be able to accomplish this with two conditions: it maintains internal unity and reforms the institution comprehensively. And reforms start from an accountable recruitment process of police officers," added Jokowi.
Jokowi, therefore, encouraged all of the country's police officers to uphold the laws fairly, without discrimination against any societal, religious and cultural group.
The police have been in the spotlight since the beginning of this year following incidents of forced dissolutions of public gatherings, discussions, events and art performances that are unilaterally defined as disturbances to the majority public nationwide.
The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) recorded that police officers had engaged in 735 cases of violence against civilians throughout the archipelago within a year.
Police officers were involved in torture as it recorded 224 cases from July last year until early July this year. In addition to torture, the list also includes forced detention, unaccountable shootings, intimidation and forced dissolutions.
The highest number of cases of violence by the police occurred in the country's easternmost province of Papua, which saw 80 incidents, according to Kontras. It also recorded a high degree of violence in the South Sulawesi, North Sumatra and West Java provinces.
A ceremony to observe the 70-year presence of the institution in the country on Friday saw outgoing chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti officially bid farewell to all members of the National Police.
Badrodin will retire later this month. He will be succeeded by the current chief of the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), Comr. Gen. Tito Karnavian, a 1987 graduate of the Police Academy.
Badrodin admitted that the police had yet to finish many things under his leadership. "I have accomplished some things [during my leadership]. I haven't accomplished some things also. This will be the job of Pak Tito to continue to settle them," Badrodin said.
He cited efforts to solve cyber crimes among the jobs that his successor needed to focus on in the future in addition to the protection of vulnerable groups.
In a separate interview, Tito told reporters that he aimed to improve the image of the police, which he would achieve by first of all increasing interaction with the public.
"We will immediately respond to issues circulating in the media especially on social media. We can no longer ignore discussions in the media. We must listen to them in order to survive," Tito said.
He, however, stopped short of saying what he would do to protect vulnerable groups, particularly religious-based communities, in order to protect religious freedom. "There are laws regulating it," he said shortly.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/07/02/police-still-struggle-professionalism.html