Dismissal Of Police Officers Due To Carelessness In Handling Health Protocols

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - National Police Chief Gen. Idham Azis removed two police generals because they were deemed not to enforce health protocols in their jurisdiction. The implementation of health protocols is an important part of preventing the spread of COVID-19 and has been an order since the beginning of the pandemic.

Two Polri Generals who were removed from their posts included the Head of the Metro Jaya Police, Inspector General Nana Sudjana and the West Java Regional Police Chief Inspector General Rudy Sufahriadi.

It is strongly suspected that their removal was related to several Rizieq Shihab events. Several times the Grand Imam of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) was held in the Jakarta and West Java areas.

"There are two police chiefs who do not carry out orders to enforce health protocols, so they will be given sanctions in the form of dismissing the Jakarta Metro Police Chief. Then the two West Java Regional Police Chiefs," said Head of Public Relations of the Indonesian Police, Inspector General Argo Yuwono, to reporters, Monday, November 16.

The removal of the two generals was stated in the Chief of Police's Secret Telegram (TR) number ST 3222 / XI / Kep / 2020, November 16, 2020.

Then for the transfer of duties, Inspector General Nana was transferred as a staff of the Chief of Police. Meanwhile, Inspector General Rudy Sufahriadi was transferred to the Education and Training Institute (Lemdiklat Polri).

"Then Inspector General Muhammad Fadil Imran, the East Java Regional Police Chief, was appointed a new position as Kapolda Metro Jaya," he said.

Originally, when Rizieq returned to Indonesia on November 10, there was a crowd welcoming him at Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

When the incident occurred, the Polda Metro Jaya did not warn the masses. Only a number of traffic diversions were carried out because the Soekarno-Hatta Airport area was paralyzed. Moreover, many of the masses who welcomed Rizieq did not apply health protocols such as not wearing masks and maintaining their distance.

Kapolda Metro Jaya Inspector General Nana Sudjana (Diah Ayu Wardani / VOI)

Then, a similar thing also happened in the Petamburan area, Central Jakarta or to be precise at Rizieq Shihab's house, on November 14. The crowd took place at the commemoration of the Prophet's birthday and marrying his daughter Najwa Shihab. Wedding events that get a lot of public attention. Because, there was a violation of the health protocol.

Meanwhile, the Head of West Java Regional Police, Inspector General Rudy Sufahriadi, was removed due to a total traffic jam due to a massive crowd attending the groundbreaking of the Grand Mosque construction at the Sharia Markaz Islamic Boarding School of Agrocultural Nature, as well as giving lectures accompanied by a number of scholars.

Takedown is not the first time

Removing members of the National Police for not enforcing health protocol regulations is not the first time this has happened. Previously, the South Tegal Police Chief, Kompol Joeharno, was also removed due to a dangdutan concert held by the Deputy Chairman of the Tegal DPRD, Wasmad Edi, on September 23.

This removal was carried out after Kompol Joeharno was examined by the Security Professional (Propam). It was proven that he had issued a permit even though he revoked it again.

"So initially I proposed not to hold a grand concert, but only for guest entertainment. It turns out that on the day of the event, or in the afternoon there is entertainment with a large stage. So I revoked my permission that day so it wouldn't be continued at night," said Joeharno.

Even though they had revoked the keramian permit, the police did not stop the dangdut concert. The reason is the limited personnel at the Police.

"Do not dare to close it by force considering that we from the Police do not have significant strength. The second reason is not good, it feels like we went on stage to stop forcefully," he said.

In April, Kapolsek Kembangan, Kompol Fahrul Sudiana, was removed for violating the Chief of Police's Declaration on health protocols. Fahrul was transferred to the Polda Metro Jaya analyst section.

He held a lavish wedding reception at Hotel Mulia and invited large crowds on March 21. In fact, at that time it was the beginning of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Illustration (Angga Nugraha / VOI)

Substitute for the metro police chief

With this dismissal, the National Police immediately pointed to Nana's replacement, namely Inspector General Fadil Imran.

Inspector General Fadil is not new to Polda Metro Jaya. This is because when he was appointed as Senior Commissioner (Kombes) he had served as Director of the Special Criminal Investigation Department of the Jakarta Metro Police.

Fadil handled the case that ensnared Rizieq Shihab in 2017. At that time, the FPI leader was involved in a nasty chat case with Firza Husein.

In this case, both of them have been named suspects. Thus, they were both suspected of Article 4 paragraph 1 in conjunction with Article 29 and / or Article 6 in conjunction with Article 32 and / or Article 8 in conjunction with Article 34 of Law Number 44 of 2008 concerning Pornography and Article 27 paragraph 1 in conjunction with Article 45 paragraph 1 of Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE).

But a year later, this case was stopped. The reason is that investigators did not find the perpetrators of spreading the pornographic content.

"There was an official request from the attorney for SP3, by letter. After that, the case was held. Then the case was terminated because according to the investigator of the case the uploader had not been found," said the Head of Public Relations of the Police, who was then held by Inspector General M. Iqbal.

Rizieq Shihab (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

The police chief was removed because he was careless

Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) argues that the reason behind the removal of Inspector General Nana Sudjana as Kapolda Metro Jaya was due to being careless. He seemed to let the crowd happen.

"As a result the Kapolda Metro was careless in allowing the crowd in the Rizieq habib case," said IPW Presidium Neta S. Pane.

With this omission, Neta said, public opinion emerged if the Police were afraid to take action against Rizieq. In fact, there have been clear violations.

"Polda Metro Jaya does not seem willing to take the risk and ignore it. In fact, what the police do can be considered by the public as being 'sharp upward blunt down'," he said.