The National Police on Wednesday bluntly admitted that they’re not as smart as the Corruption Eradication Commission — in terms of managing their public perception, that is.
“Police are not smart in building [their] image,” National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Nanan Soekarna said on Wednesday. “If the police are bad, the news is everywhere on TV. But if police are good, [the news] never gets out. We’re not smart, we don’t have the money. We’re not given [money] by the state to dress up the police’s image.”
He claimed that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) was a different story, saying the antigraft body had hired public relations professionals to manage its image.
“Look how much KPK spent of its budget to hire [PR company] Java-something … to make up its image,” Nanan said. “Every police officer has a role [to play in image building]. Even though the [police’s] public relations division has been going [all out] in selling good cops, if one police officer does bad, it destroys the [perception of] police.”
The National Police and KPK have a history of tense relations. In 2009, when the KPK began investigating suspicions of bribery involving a police general leading an investigation into the collapse of Bank Century, police charged former KPK deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah with bribery, a charge many said was trumped up.
Bibit and Chandra’s arrest paralyzed the KPK so badly that the investigation of the police general ceased. Suspicions that police were fabricating the accusations against Bibit and Chandra were affirmed when a key witness retracted his testimony and a presidentially appointed fact-finding team concluded that police had not obtained sufficient evidence to begin an investigation.
In an ongoing feud, the two institutions have been involved in a tug of war over which body has the jurisdiction to investigate a National Police Traffic Corps driving simulator procurement scandal, said to have cost the state at least Rp 100 billion ($10.6 million) in losses.
Law experts, anti-corruption activists and the Indonesian public have generally shown greater support for the KPK than for the police.
Nanan said regardless of the KPK’s upper hand in terms of public perception, police always refrained from reacting negatively.
“We never use the media for bad-mouthing [the KPK],” Nanan said, adding that KPK chairman Abraham Samad should work within the legal framework to resolve jurisdictional disputes with the National Police instead of using the media to attract public sympathy.
“Please media, help us in building our image. Whatever the media is — the blue one [Media Group & MNC Group], the red one [Vivagroup], black one [Transcorp] — please help us building our image,” Nanan said, referring to major Indonesian media conglomerates by their branding colors.
“I want us to be close, but not collusive. Don’t use our closeness to ask us, ‘Pak, please help my son, my nephew.’ ”
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/deputy-chief-police-lack-kpks-pr-savvy/546624
