July 16, 2024
JAKARTA – The presiding judge of a high court in West Java painted a damning portrait of the state of law enforcement in the country when he recently proclaimed that police officers had wrongfully arrested Pegi Setiawan, 27, for allegedly masterminding a 2016 double murder in Cirebon regency.
Pegi was one of three people on the lam and among 11 accused of the gang rape and murder of 16-year-olds Vina Dewi Arsita and Muhammad Rizky Rudiana, in a police probe that already appeared to be marred by irregularities.
On the one hand, the Bandung court’s decision to remove the construction worker from the suspect list in a revived cold case highlights the role that virality plays – rather than justice – as a motivating factor in law enforcement.
Pegi was detained by the police pending trial just two weeks after the launch of a film adaptation of the case in May, a move that raised many eyebrows, particularly after the police claimed that no other fugitive remained at large.
For the eight years prior to that, the case was placed on the back burner along with numerous others awaiting escape from legal limbo, even as rumors swirled that the police were protecting someone important in Cirebon.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is at least partly to blame for instilling a need to go viral as a key performance indicator among state agencies, but this is a problem that pales when compared to the utter loss of police credibility in standing within the corridor of law and enforcing it.
Barely two years on since noted police expert Jacqui Baker proclaimed that Indonesia’s police reform was dead, we are nowhere closer to breaking the cycle of impunity and incompetence. And all that the outgoing president has done is warn the police that the public has its eye on them.
When we look back on the scandals that have tarnished the image of the police institution since then, we can find the problem deeply embedded in each case.
In the deadly Kanjuruhan stadium stampede that broke out because of the use of tear gas in violation of sporting rules, we can see how easily the police resort to repressive action.
In the Yosua Hutabarat murder trial, we saw how 97 police officers were deployed to cover the tracks of internal affairs chief Ferdy Sambo in a blatant show of impunity.
Speaking to the rampant corruption in the force, former East Java Police chief Teddy Minahasa was tried in court for peddling contraband, while then-police general Firli Bahuri was found to have extorted a cabinet minister as the head of the anti-corruption agency.
More recently, the death of a high school student in West Sumatra set the stage for arrogance and police brutality, as the provincial police chief defied calls for accountability.
In Pegi’s case, with the police once again appearing desperate to rush the probe out of the spotlight, it has become the latest sign of an unwillingness to change.
Critics also note that the ongoing push to revise the 2002 Police Law hardly places any importance on preventing more wrongful arrests or police brutality but affords more sweeping powers online and in civilian spaces.
The police should put more effort into their job to serve and protect, rather than play pawn in a corrupt political system that silences critics and represses the opposition.
Unlike politicians, who we can vote out and replace if they do not perform, we have no choice but to rely on the police and its oversight institutions to ensure that procedures are followed to a tee. So please put your talents to good use.
Late president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid once joked that the good cops were the “polisi tidur“, coyly using the Indonesian term for speed bump while also making fun of snoozing police officers. The joke still rings true today.