[Kabar-indonesia] JP Editorial: Many Good Cops [+Prosecutors Probed; CSM Opinion]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: JP: Prosecutors probed in Jamsostek blackmail case 
and CSM Opinion: Corruption's drag on democratic states

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Editorial

Many Good Cops 

The Hollywood movie One Good Cop didn't make a big box office splash when it 
was released in 1991, nor did it win any Oscars. What the movie did do, 
though, 
was portray an ideal vision of a caring police officer, going beyond the call 
of duty 
to provide the kind of protection people around the world dream of from their 
police force.

Here in Indonesia, unfortunately, that kind of ideal officer seems to be 
nothing more than pure Hollywood fantasy. This is especially true after a recent 
series of violent incidents involving officers. Members of the elite Mobile 
Brigade ran amok and attacked Poso Police Headquarters on Friday. Several days 
earlier, the media reported that a student at the police academy in Semarang, 
Hendra Saputra, was tortured by older students in March. Early this month 
Jakarta police admitted to investigating alleged misconduct involving officers, who 
wrongly charged a man with killing his father in 2002 and detained him for six 
months. 

These three incidents, and other cases of violence involving officers, may 
not offer sufficient evidence to condemn the entire police force, but the 
misconduct cannot be taken lightly or swept under the carpet. The public has become 
increasingly anxious about reforms in a police force long associated with 
corrupt and abusive behavior when it was part of the military. 

We have witnessed efforts to build a professional police force through 
institutional and organizational changes in the wake of the historic separation of 
the police from the military in 2000. That split was stipulated in a People's 
Consultative Assembly decree that changed the status of the police to that of a 
civilian force in charge of domestic security. 

Thanks to the reform movement, police officers are now subject to the 
civilian judicial system when implicated in criminal cases. During the New Order era 
under president Soeharto, officers involved in crimes were court-martialled, a 
military prosecution where transparency and public access do not count. Many 
more cases were settled internally. 

Now police investigators dare to bring high-ranking officers to justice. An 
active three-star general and a one-star general are among the police's top 
brass standing trial for allegedly accepting bribes from a graft suspect. It is a 
bold move, although many suspect this new get-tough approach is more about 
protecting the corps or certain well-placed individuals. 

The reforms that have taken place within the police have failed to dispel the 
culture of violence in the force. After a few years of restraint, the old 
repressive measures are beginning to regain ground. Police no longer hesitate to 
resort to excessive force when dispersing protesters. A recent proposal from 
the police was that officers be allowed to use live bullets in the event a 
rally turned violent, threatening the security of others. Pressure from human 
rights groups helped foil this misguided idea. 

The governor of the Police Academy, Insp. Gen. Primanto, claims the 
curriculum at the academy is much better than when he was a cadet. He maintains that 
students now learn about human rights, gender equality and community policing, 
broadening their outlook and humanizing them. 

But do future police officers really learn to respect and promote pluralism 
and difference? The fact that they are groomed in a culture that sanctifies 
seniority contributed to the violence in the case of police cadet Hendra, who 
remains in intensive care with severe head injuries. Like the military, the 
police force has kept its strict line of command intact, with arguments between 
junior and senior officers unimaginable. 

Several studies in the United States found that cities which used a much more 
humane and problem-oriented approach to solving crime saw just as dramatic 
double-digit decreases in crime numbers as cities like New York. The studies 
suggested that effective policing was possible with a minimal use of force. 

There is still a realistic chance that we will see an improvement in the 
performance of our police, as long as the intense public scrutiny does not waver. 
The new Police Commission, which involves members of the public, will 
officially carry out oversight of the police. But this commission will be ineffective 
if citizens are too afraid to complain about and criticize the police. 

With rampant corruption, the threat of terrorism and other transnational 
crimes plaguing the country, we really do need as many good cops as possible. 

--------------------------------------------

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Prosecutors probed in blackmail case 

JAKARTA: Investigators questioned two prosecutors as suspects here Tuesday 
for alleged blackmail in connection with a major corruption case they pursued 
against former Jamsostek chief Achmad Djunaidi.

Burdju Ronni and Cecep Sunarto are charged with blackmailing the former 
state-owned workers insurance firm president director for Rp 550 million 
(US$60,397). 

The questioning took place at the National Police headquarters. 

"The investigation started at around 11 a.m.," National Police spokesman 
Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam was quoted by Antara as saying. 

The two prosecutors evaded journalists waiting for their arrival by using a 
side entrace into the police headquarters. 

Anton could not say whether the two would be detained after the probe. 

Burdju and Cecep were part of a team at the South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office 
that helped jail Djunaidi for eight years over the Rp 311 billion graft case. 
--JP 

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The Christian Science Monitor
Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Opinion

Corruption's drag on democratic states

By Christopher Walker and Sanja Tatic 

NEW YORK – The difficult, ongoing battle to achieve governance that is 
effective, democratic, and responsive to ordinary citizens faces a particularly 
pernicious obstacle: entrenched corruption. 

A source or symptom of wider problems confronting society, corruption is both 
a barrier to strengthening democratic institutions and harmful to 
development. And while every country confronts this scourge to one degree or another, for 
transition countries whose democratic reforms hang in the balance, this is an 
especially critical challenge. 

In order to acquire a stronger understanding of the forces at work inhibiting 
the establishment of democratic governance, Freedom House's study of 
governance, "Countries at the Crossroads," examines 30 strategically important states 
around the globe that are struggling to consolidate democratic institutions. 

These countries - from Armenia to Malaysia to Zimbabwe - are evaluated on 
four indicators of good governance: accountability and public voice, civil 
liberties, rule of law, and anticorruption and transparency. While none of these 
countries is a strong governance performer overall, performance in anticorruption 
and transparency was pointedly weak with an average score of 2.71 (on a scale 
of 0 to 7, with 7 being strongest), more than a full point lower than the 
strongest overall category (civil liberties). And corruption shows itself to be a 
resilient and global problem: None of the 30 countries in the study scored 
above a 4.0 on the anticorruption measure.

The study found Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan, Yemen, Kazakhstan, and Bahrain to be 
the weakest performers on the corruption indicator. In these countries, 
powerholders effectively maintain a chokehold on the state institutions, pla-cing a 
premium on private benefit for the ruling elite.

Zimbabwe was the worst performer in the anticorruption and transparency 
category, which takes into account the performance of the authorities in fighting 
corruption by evaluating the existence of laws and standards to prevent and 
combat corrupt practices, the enforcement of such measures, and overall 
governmental transparency. The Zimbabwe report found that "the primary interest of the 
Mugabe government is to retain power through a system of patronage that 
includes access to both state and private assets" and that "the ruling ZANU-PF party 
owns a wide range of businesses, allowing party elites to profit personally."

In Kazakhstan, where President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled for a decade 
and a half, the report finds that "the government of Kazakhstan is unlikely to 
take decisive steps to eliminate corruption as long as Nazarbayev remains 
president of the country."

These examples are illustrative and not exhaustive. Similar accounts were 
found in many of the other countries examined, where kleptocratic regimes 
siphoned resources that should be devoted to citizens' needs and development.

Meanwhile, countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, which have made progress in 
important areas of governance and have public mandates to take on corruption, 
are still finding it difficult to make deeper institutional reforms against 
corruption.

In Ukraine, for example, the breakthrough in the exposure of corruption on a 
grand scale following the Orange Revolution "was not accompanied by a change 
in the structural incentives for politicians and civil servants to blur the 
line between private and public interests."

Georgia, which improved its performance on corruption by putting in place 
several important reforms (for example, by overhauling the legendarily corrupt 
police), nonetheless is also experiencing difficulty in pushing reform to the 
next level and in meeting expectations of its citizens and international 
institutions alike.

Part of the corruption challenge is its comprehensiveness. Reform of any 
single sector is not sufficient to tackle the problem. In fact, the weakest 
performing states tend to have crosscutting governance deficiencies. These include 
weak capacity and independence of the law enforcement community and judiciary, 
as well as civil society.

The news media is critical. The study found that restrictions on press 
freedom often are most severe in countries where corruption is most rampant - 
underscoring the vital role that the press can play in exposing corruption and 
airing debates about how best to address it.

Given the vastness of the problem and the stakes involved for powerholders 
who benefit from corrupt networks should they lose their position, there is no 
single, simple solution for tackling this challenge.

Western governments, major transnational institutions, and the international 
business community all will need to redouble efforts to fight corruption in 
developing transition states. However, despite the important role of 
international institutions, national governments and domestic actors remain indispensable.

If the battle to curb corruption and improve governance is to be won, it will 
require a commitment from international and domestic actors alike. Success in 
this effort would open the field for these countries to join the community of 
stable, free, and democratic nations.

Christopher Walker and Sanja Tatic are coeditors of Countries at the 
Crossroads, Freedom House's annual study of democratic governance, whose 2006 findings 
are being released on Aug. 3.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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