Police
need integrated approach to civilian violence
Donny Syofyan, A LECTURER IN THE CULTURAL SCIENCES
FACULTY OF ANDALAS UNIVERSITY, PADANG
Sumber
: JAKARTA POST, 6 Januari 2012
Violence against civilians
seems endless in this country. Having been shocked by the massacre in the
Mesuji district, and the police shooting of villagers who were rallying in Bima
against a gold mining company, four people were killed in two separate
armed attacks on New Year’s Eve in Aceh province.
While the violent incidents in Mesuji and Bima were straightforward clashes between the police and civilians, violence in Aceh is heavily politically motivated.
Any efforts to tackle the recurrent violent clashes call for an integrated approach. An integrated approach serves not only to prevent a scapegoating trend from escalating but also to uncover the underlying causes of the problem. For that purpose, the government must come up with better solutions in response to the recent violence against civilians.
First, National Police reform is a must. The separation between the police and the military in 1999 was initially expected to provide a greater chance to the police to provide service, law and order to the public. However, those terrible events in Mesuji and Bima ran contrary to the very nature of police work. Rather than securing and siding with civilians, police are inclined to secure the interests of ruling powers and large corporations. The police overlook the fact that those protesters were educated and civilized people, not drug dealers or thugs.
This recent police brutality can be attributed to Law No. 2/2002 on the National Police, which exerts tremendous stress on security. The law disregards the police’s core functions of fighting crime, maintaining law and order, and serving and protecting the community.
The police need to shift from security toward adopting a humanitarian approach. This shift should focus on the development of civilian police, democratic policing, community policing, and collective policing. These new approaches would be instrumental in abandoning the frequently adopted Machiavellian approach when encountering angry demonstrators, which is marked by justifying all means necessary.
Shared responsibility for the dirty and guilty must not be compromised. A senior-ranking officer should be responsible for what has been done by his or her subordinates.
A deconstruction strategy should not be regarded as taboo for police quality control; it is only through the disposing of bad or rogue officers that the police may revamp their reputation.
Our National Police may learn from the Hong Kong Police, the model police force among Commonwealth countries due to its clean reputation; or from China’s police, which once disbanded one of its regional units and recruited from scratch because of their failure to combat corruption and drug trafficking organizations.
Second, agrarian reform is equally necessary to address the human rights violations in Mesuji and Bima. The bloody brutality in the two places could actually be an entry point to improve the pro-people agrarian law, which involves agrarian-conflict resolution. Pressure for agrarian reform is mostly derived from countless land disputes taking place across the archipelago. Based on the People’s Consultative Assembly Decree No. 9/2001, the government is obliged to carry out agrarian reform.
As the government has not implemented its mandate, agrarian conflicts toward impoverished workers or smallholders will continue to occur, as in Mesuji and Bima. Things will only get worse as the government’s lack of political will becomes mixed with greedy mining and plantation companies. Hence, a comprehensive settlement is of paramount importance involving the Forestry Ministry, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the National Land Agency, and local government.
The Mesuji and Bima tragedies merely represent the tip of the iceberg, implying that a large number of land conflicts remain hidden in the regions, and frequently involve security forces.
The government tends to keep the matter quiet instead of exposing it. The Association for Community and Ecology-based Law Reform (Huma) reported that there have been 108 agrarian conflicts in 10 provinces over the last ten years, consisting of tenure conflicts surrounding forest land (69 cases), and conflicts over plantations (23 cases). Thus, the agrarian law needs to be codified with a view to protecting and guaranteeing the rights of land workers and landowners
Third, political and economic resolution is the key to settling the violence in Aceh. Armed attacks in various places in Aceh are multi-faceted problems. Violence settlement in Aceh requires economic equity and reconciliation among former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members. Simply put, economic and political issues must be addressed at the same time.
The grenade attack on the Wisma Lamprit guesthouse, not far from the campaign headquarters of incumbent Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, reveals a schism among the former GAM members. Prior to the contentious local elections, former GAM split into two factions: the Irwandi-supporting faction and the Aceh Party. While Irwandi is due to run as an independent candidate for governor, the latter is nominating its own gubernatorial candidate instead of supporting Irwandi for the post.
The murder of Saiful Cage, a former GAM combatant, who was Irwandi’s ally in 2011, suggests harsh competition both between and within political parties. Long-term political stability can only be restored through reconciliation and consolidation among the former GAM factions.
The murders of oil palm plantation workers in Aceh, mostly Javanese, were reportedly due to the unequal distribution of jobs to locals. Many Acehnese protested that large corporations, including the Arun LNG plant, paid less heed to locals, preferring instead to hire migrants from outside Aceh. Providing more job opportunities and empowering locals is necessary to reduce the economic disparity, social jealousy and social sadism in Aceh. ●
While the violent incidents in Mesuji and Bima were straightforward clashes between the police and civilians, violence in Aceh is heavily politically motivated.
Any efforts to tackle the recurrent violent clashes call for an integrated approach. An integrated approach serves not only to prevent a scapegoating trend from escalating but also to uncover the underlying causes of the problem. For that purpose, the government must come up with better solutions in response to the recent violence against civilians.
First, National Police reform is a must. The separation between the police and the military in 1999 was initially expected to provide a greater chance to the police to provide service, law and order to the public. However, those terrible events in Mesuji and Bima ran contrary to the very nature of police work. Rather than securing and siding with civilians, police are inclined to secure the interests of ruling powers and large corporations. The police overlook the fact that those protesters were educated and civilized people, not drug dealers or thugs.
This recent police brutality can be attributed to Law No. 2/2002 on the National Police, which exerts tremendous stress on security. The law disregards the police’s core functions of fighting crime, maintaining law and order, and serving and protecting the community.
The police need to shift from security toward adopting a humanitarian approach. This shift should focus on the development of civilian police, democratic policing, community policing, and collective policing. These new approaches would be instrumental in abandoning the frequently adopted Machiavellian approach when encountering angry demonstrators, which is marked by justifying all means necessary.
Shared responsibility for the dirty and guilty must not be compromised. A senior-ranking officer should be responsible for what has been done by his or her subordinates.
A deconstruction strategy should not be regarded as taboo for police quality control; it is only through the disposing of bad or rogue officers that the police may revamp their reputation.
Our National Police may learn from the Hong Kong Police, the model police force among Commonwealth countries due to its clean reputation; or from China’s police, which once disbanded one of its regional units and recruited from scratch because of their failure to combat corruption and drug trafficking organizations.
Second, agrarian reform is equally necessary to address the human rights violations in Mesuji and Bima. The bloody brutality in the two places could actually be an entry point to improve the pro-people agrarian law, which involves agrarian-conflict resolution. Pressure for agrarian reform is mostly derived from countless land disputes taking place across the archipelago. Based on the People’s Consultative Assembly Decree No. 9/2001, the government is obliged to carry out agrarian reform.
As the government has not implemented its mandate, agrarian conflicts toward impoverished workers or smallholders will continue to occur, as in Mesuji and Bima. Things will only get worse as the government’s lack of political will becomes mixed with greedy mining and plantation companies. Hence, a comprehensive settlement is of paramount importance involving the Forestry Ministry, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the National Land Agency, and local government.
The Mesuji and Bima tragedies merely represent the tip of the iceberg, implying that a large number of land conflicts remain hidden in the regions, and frequently involve security forces.
The government tends to keep the matter quiet instead of exposing it. The Association for Community and Ecology-based Law Reform (Huma) reported that there have been 108 agrarian conflicts in 10 provinces over the last ten years, consisting of tenure conflicts surrounding forest land (69 cases), and conflicts over plantations (23 cases). Thus, the agrarian law needs to be codified with a view to protecting and guaranteeing the rights of land workers and landowners
Third, political and economic resolution is the key to settling the violence in Aceh. Armed attacks in various places in Aceh are multi-faceted problems. Violence settlement in Aceh requires economic equity and reconciliation among former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members. Simply put, economic and political issues must be addressed at the same time.
The grenade attack on the Wisma Lamprit guesthouse, not far from the campaign headquarters of incumbent Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, reveals a schism among the former GAM members. Prior to the contentious local elections, former GAM split into two factions: the Irwandi-supporting faction and the Aceh Party. While Irwandi is due to run as an independent candidate for governor, the latter is nominating its own gubernatorial candidate instead of supporting Irwandi for the post.
The murder of Saiful Cage, a former GAM combatant, who was Irwandi’s ally in 2011, suggests harsh competition both between and within political parties. Long-term political stability can only be restored through reconciliation and consolidation among the former GAM factions.
The murders of oil palm plantation workers in Aceh, mostly Javanese, were reportedly due to the unequal distribution of jobs to locals. Many Acehnese protested that large corporations, including the Arun LNG plant, paid less heed to locals, preferring instead to hire migrants from outside Aceh. Providing more job opportunities and empowering locals is necessary to reduce the economic disparity, social jealousy and social sadism in Aceh. ●
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar