TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The President has chosen Listyo Sigit Prabowo as his candidate for National Police chief. This was influenced by his close relationship and by political interests.

THE selection of Comr. Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo, 51, as the sole candidate for chief of the National Police (Polri) is hardly an illustration of the principles of meritocracy. President Joko Widodo prioritized the closeness of his relationship when deciding on the replacement for Gen. Idham Azis, who is shortly to retire.

The nomination of Sigit was forwarded to the House of Representatives last Thursday, January 14. He does not have a shining track record and was not the top graduate from the Police Academy. Hence, there is a strong impression that the selection of Sigit was linked to Jokowi's agenda to safeguard his political interests.

The two men have been close for a long time. Born in Ambon, the graduate of the Police Academy Class of 1991 was chief of the Surakarta Police from 2001 to 2012, while Jokowi was the city's mayor. After Jokowi was elected president, Sigit served as presidential adjutant from 2014 to 2016.

It is difficult not to link these considerations with the selection of Sigit. He was even once given a job outside matters of public order, the main responsibility of police officers. This magazine once reported that Sigit was given a political task by the Palace.

When he was chief of the Polri Professional and Security Division, Sigit was tasked by the Palace to attend a meeting between two competing Golkar factions at a restaurant in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. This meeting was organized to ensure that Bambang Soesatyo, Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, withdrew his candidacy for the party chairman to smooth the way for Airlangga Hartarto, who the Palace wanted to have the job.

Sigit's appointment means that it is easy for the police to be used for political interests. The police might create criminal cases to cover up issues that would cause problems for the government. This concern is not without basis. In the early days of Sigit's leadership of the Police Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) at the end of 2019, the unit arrested two members of the police's Mobile Brigade on suspicion of throwing acid in the face of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan. Law and human rights activists are convinced that the two men are not the actual perpetrators. Following the arrests, the calls for an independent fact-finding team to be established to investigate the attack on Novel immediately faded away.

These suspicions would not have arisen had the police chief selection process been carried out properly and transparently from the outset. The National Police Commission, which has a legal mandate to provide advice on this matter to the president, should use a candidate's track record and competence as the main considerations.

Unclear considerations give room for senior police officers to maneuver. They could trigger plots and intrigues to cause problems for rivals. Candidates for this position will compete for political support. The factionalism within Polri will continue after Sigit officially becomes the leader of the organization. With factionalism and groups being hostage to their own interests, it will be impossible to reform the police.

We also know that the problem of corruption within the police has not been resolved. This was apparent from, among other things, the collusion to free the fugitive criminal Joko Tjandra. Moreover, the conduct of the police is still militaristic, as was shown in the investigation report by the National Commission on Human Rights about the deaths of six members of the Islam Defenders Front. The Commission concluded that the police were involved in extrajudicial killings. Sigit's track record has led to the pessimism that these types of problems will be ever resolved.

Read the Complete Story in Tempo English Magazine