{"id":1047,"date":"2016-07-15T18:14:44","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T18:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s182082000.onlinehome.us\/?p=1047"},"modified":"2018-02-22T20:41:38","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T20:41:38","slug":"a-strong-appointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/?p=1047","title":{"rendered":"A Strong Appointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"tito\"
Tito Karnavian<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

The prospect for deep reforms in Indonesia has always depended on how independent the outsider President Jokowi could be from the country\u2019s sclerotic political party system. His supporters \u2013who detect a masterly Javanese subtlety\u2013 have been waiting for a consolidation of his power after which they expect him to deliver on his campaign promises to eliminate graft and patronage. They may have been rewarded this week with the nomination of General Tito Karnavian as National Police Chief. Known for his accomplishments as head of Indonesia\u2019s counter-terrorism agency, Karniawan has been an outspoken proponent of internal reforms and accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President\u2019s considerations in choosing Tito Karnavian is to increase the police force\u2019s professionalism to safeguard the public, improve law enforcement, especially regarding extraordinary crimes such as terrorism, drugs and corruption as well as to increase synergy with other law enforcement agencies.\u201d (Jokowi\u2019s spokeperson)<\/p>\n

Capturing the assignment was not easy as it has been well known that the former President Megawati, chairwoman of PDIP (the political party that first supported Jokowi back when he first ran for local office as a mayor) supported her former adjutant, Budi Gunawan, the current Vice Chief of Police. Furthermore, Kurniawan was not even on the list of candidates submitted by the National Police Commission headed by Coordinating Minister (Politics, Security, Law) Luhut Pandjaitan, a close confidant of the President. Given the many cases against US businesses where the police have either looked the other way, or been accused of shakedowns, the appointment bodes well for a strengthened rule of law.<\/p>\n

Karniawan may remind one of US General David Petraeus, also a battlefield veteran with a PhD. After graduating at the top of his academy class in 1987, Karnavian earned masters degrees in UK and a PhD from Singapore\u2019s Rajaratnam School. Only 51, he made a name for himself early in his career when he apprehended a fugitive Tommy Suharto (son of the former President) accused of murder in 2001. In 2004 he joined (and eventually commanded) the newly created \u201cDensus 88\u201d, a special counter terrorism force that arrested or eliminated hundreds of terrorists such as Noordin Top (thought to be the bomb maker for 2009 Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott attacks). More recently he exposed high-level corruption at the Trade Ministry involving the clearing of goods.<\/p>\n

In October 2015, Karnavian gave a major address at an officers school and was paraphrased as saying that police are guilty of \u201chedonism, consumerism, the enjoyment of glamour and the showing-off of houses and vehicles.\u201d He denounced the prevalence of \u201cunauthorized levies and brokers\u201d in police procedures, and he said there is a need to \u201cimpose accountability \u2013 because at present the police do not have it.\u201d He said that the main targets for \u201ccleansing and disciplinary operations\u201d should be regional commanders, Criminal Research personnel, traffic police, human resource administrators and logistics managers.\u201d<\/p>\n

If, as analysts speculate, Karnavian can bring a new approach to his position, there should be a drop in practices such as one that often affects foreign companies where the police create spurious criminal charges (as was case in the Chevron bioremediation case) either directly or at the request of a third party and offer to drop them for money. Having passed over more senior officers, he may run into opposition. But, he wants to make major changes to recruitment and training, and because of his age, he may have the time needed to do it.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because of his strong anti-terrorism credentials there has been little opposition in Parliament. Civil society groups such as the Legal Aid Institute have been more vocal in pointing out alleged abuses in Papua and Jakarta when he was a local commander. Regardless, he should get approved.<\/p>\n

The significance of the appointment lies in the President\u2019s defiance of his own party (PDI-P) and perhaps his close aide and backer Luhut Pandjaitan, who once told me \u201cthe President has his own mind sometimes\u201d. Together with Golkar\u2019s return to the ruling coalition (reported last month) it signals that Jokowi will be governing more from the instinct for reform that has characterized his leadership since his days as Solo\u2019s mayor. With that as a starting point, prospects for greater legal certainty can only go up.[\/fusion_builder_column][\/fusion_builder_row][\/fusion_builder_container]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] The prospect for deep reforms in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1047"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1700,"href":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions\/1700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}