SBY Having Another Buffalo Moment...

It would appear that the very considerable resources of the National Police Force of the Republic of Indonesia are being brought together to keep people's legitimate rights to protest at bay. Funnily enough in the democracy that Indonesia claims to be, there are those that don't see eye-to-eye with the president on his performance.

In order to make the president see that he is doing a below average job they plan to protest on 20 October 2010 to commiserate the first 12 months of the second Yudhoyono term.

A previous protest was notable for the reaction of the ever and over-sensitive president. One of the protesters thought the best visual way to articulate his dissatisfaction about the job the president was not doing, namely: being president, was to bring along his buffalo and paint SiBuYo on the side of it.

There is little doubting what this protesters intention was. However, this, in my opinion, is a poor rap for the buffalo. After all, the buffalo is worth something and actually pulls their weight and does some work.In fact, the buffalo earns its keep. Whereas, in contrast SBY, is just big, fat and lazy, except when it comes to making albums and inserting inappropriate questions into the civil service exams!

But, to ensure that the super-thin-skinned president is not the subject of ridicule and offense. The National Police have reminded protesters they are not to bring animals to the protest, particularly animals that will cause offense. This is presumably for public safety and law and order concerns. As I said, bad rap for the buffalo.

Maybe the RMS should just start bringing buffaloes to the airport...it seems that Pak Presiden is just as scared of buffaloes as he is court cases.

Bye Bye Chief of Police, Bye Bye Chief of Detectives...

The game might very well be up for both the Chief of Police, Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri, and the Chief of Detectives, Comr. Gen. Susno Duaji. That game being their employment in their current positions. Any attempt to maintain them by the president will be a mortal wound for the president as both the Chiefs are tainted beyond salvation. In essence, the president himself signed off on the pink slips when he created the fact-finding team, and then tasked that team with uncovering the truth.

There remain questions of independence considering the president appointed a team to uncover the mentioning of his name in a some wire-tapped conversations. However, the fact-finding team was always going to find that there was no evidence against Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Rianto because there was none to start with.

Indonesian law in its current form would not sustain the trumped-up criminalization of authority charges, and the alleged corruption has to-date not been proved. In fact, there is not even enough in police hands at the moment to even formulate the charge.

The fact finding team is supposedly going to send an interim report to the president that states that there is not enough evidence to proceed against Chandra and Bibit, either on the current charge or the alleged corruption. The president can no longer sit back and say that he is going to let this charade run its legal course. That course is done. The charges against Chandra and Bibit must be dropped and they must be reinstated immediately to their positions as Commissioners on the Corruption Eradication Commission.

This farce has already damaged the president, and any feet-dragging on his part once the fact finding team reports will only further damage his credibility as a corruption fighter.

If the president is worth his salt, then the Chief of Police will resign, or be dismissed, within 24 hours of the fact finding team's report (assuming that they report that there is not enough evidence to proceed). Quite simply, the Chief of Police used a Parliamentary Commission to state publicly that the police had enough evidence to proceed against Chandra on the corruption allegations. This would seem to be a clear case of putting the cart before the horse.

In simple terms, the Chief of Police lied, and he seemingly has misled and lied to the parliament about the state of the police investigation into the allegations.

Furthermore, the Chief of Detectives must also resign or be dismissed. After all this was his own personal vendetta or war against the KPK, and he has been found wanting in the honesty and integrity department. This is in spite of any claims he may have made as God is his witness that he never received any bribes. Whether he did or did not is irrelevant. His pursuit of Chandra and Bibit was a clear abuse of power on his part, and that in itself is sufficient for him to fall on his own sword and resign. If he does not have the desire or courage to fall on his sword, then the president needs to ensure that the man is dismissed from his position.

Once the president has taken the opportunity to clear out the dead wood from the police force, he must then turn his attention to the Office of the Attorney General (AGO). Heads will also need to roll there. And, those heads must continue to roll until a new Attorney General is appointed. Best case scenario for the next AG is that it is a lawyer of good standing and a clean reputation. It cannot be an internal promotion from within the ranks of the AGO as the AGO has shown that as an institution it is tainted with corruption.

The reality is that an outsider with a mandate and the support of the president will have a foot up in terms of cleaning house and setting the AGO on the path of real reform.

This would seemingly be the perfect opportunity for the president to clean house, and start fulfilling the promise of corruption eradication, clean governance, and a brighter future free from institutionalized corruption for all Indonesians.

Postscript...

I should add that the Deputy Attorney General, Abdul Hakim Ritonga, and the Chief of Detectives, Comr. Gen. Susno Duaji, have tendered resignations.

Noordin M Top -- Dead

Noordin M. Top is dead. His death has been confirmed by Indonesia's National Police Chief, Bambang Hendarso Danuri, today.

Top was killed in a raid on a suspected terrorist hideout in Solo, Central Java. This brings to an end the seven or so years that Top has spent on the run terrorizing and killing innocent Indonesians and foreigners. The identification has been based on fingerprints on file with Malaysian police authorities.

Top was the leader of a small splinter group, Tandzim al-Qaeda, which separated from Jemaah Islamiyah (Jemaah Islamiyya). Apparently, Jemaah Islamiyah had become too soft for Top's liking as JI was moving away from violent jihad. Although, if one listened to the rhetoric and oration of JI's alleged spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, you might wonder if this were true.

It might have been better if Top had been capture alive because he would potential be a well of information that if properly handled might have assisted in averting future terrorist attacks in the months and years ahead. But, by all accounts Top was never likely to be captured without a fight, and it seems he has gone out with a bang, so to speak.

All previous posts on Top can be found here.

I guess now he gets to find out if he gets the promised reward of 72 virgins.