Top Cop Tells Press Pack to Calm Down Over KPK Treatment

Jakarta Globe, Farouk Arnaz & Ezra Sihite,  Feb 12, 2015

Deputy police chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, right, shakes hands with former
police chief Gen. Sutarman in January. (Antara Photo/Sigid Kurniawan)

Jakarta. The deputy chief of the National Police, Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, has lashed out at the media for sensationalizing the police’s relationship with the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK.

Badrodin said that media reports of the police threatening or intimidating KPK commissioners and other staff were entirely misplaced.

“It’s really disturbing,” Badrodin said on Thursday at the National Police headquarters. “You [journalists] are accusing the National Police. How could I not feel bothered?”

Badrodin claimed the police were between a rock and a hard place because any police attempt to effectively go anywhere near the KPK’s South Jakarta headquarters was met with accusations it was attempting to raid the premises.

“When we secure a demonstration, people say that we are raiding [the KPK],” he said. “Every time there’s police [near the KPK], they say that we’re terrorizing the KPK.”

The police and the KPK remain at loggerheads while President Joko Widodo decides how to proceed after having nominated Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan to become the next chief of police, only to see him become entangled in legal problems.

Budi was named a corruption suspect by the KPK just days after Joko’s nomination, setting in train a series of events that appear to be aimed at undermining the KPK and which have eroded yet more trust in Indonesia’s police force. Police are currently pursuing a host of old legal cases against the entire KPK leadership.