Supervision Of The National Police Commission Is Weak, The Police Reform Commission Says This

Member Of The National Police Reform Acceleration Commission, Badrodin Haiti/PHOTO: Diah Ayu-VOI

JAKARTA - The National Police Commission (Kompolnas) has been criticized as an institution that does not firmly carry out its duties in supervising the Police. In the midst of the pressure to reform the National Police, it is feared that the weak role of Kompolnas will increase the potential for irregularities by the police.

Responding to this, a member of the National Police Reform Acceleration Commission, Badrodin Haiti, said that critical records regarding the National Police Commission would be included in the discussion and preparation of the broadcast of the acceleration of Polri reform which would later be submitted to President Prabowo Subianto.

"From environmental activists, members of the press also highlighted the problem of ineffective external surveillance and even sided with the police, who should have carried out good supervision. That is input for us," Badrodin told reporters, Wednesday, November 26.

Badrodin admitted that he did not know whether the Police's Refoermation Commission would make recommendations for the formation of a new external agency that oversees the police or not. What is clear is that the Commission will draw up an ideal design for the performance of Kompolnas in the future.

"It does need improvement, but how to improve it through a discussion process. Because we are on this committee, this committee will discuss everything later," he said.

Previously, environmental activists submitted a number of inputs to the Police Reform Acceleration Commission, one of which was related to the effectiveness of external supervision of police institutions. Kompolnas is considered unable to carry out its supervisory function independently so that it needs to be reviewed for institutional design.

The head of Greenpeace Indonesia, Leonard Simanjuntak, assesses the structure and composition of Kompolnas so far has made the institution not work optimally as a supervisor.

"Earlier, we conveyed that Kompolnas was actually designed not as an effective supervisory agency for the National Police," said Leonard after an audience with the Police Reform Acceleration Commission.

He said Kompolnas' recommendations had been weak, plus the presence of police elements in it affected the independence of the institution. "The point is that independence from a supervisory agency in the future is very necessary. So an effective external supervision," he continued.

Meanwhile, the National Walhi Legal and Defense Manager, Teo Reffelsen, asked for improvements to supervision not only stop at the reform of the National Police institution.

"We also ask that the team accelerate police reform not only reform the police institutionally, but also prepare an external supervisory body that is independent, implicit, and not filled by police officials," he said.

Teo added that there is a need for strong authority as well as a supervisory structure to the regions, complete with budget support, so that the supervision process can run effectively and fairly.

"This external supervisory body will be given strong authority to monitor the police," he added.