Rahel Narda Chaterine, Ardito Ramadhan, Jakarta – During a meeting with the Commission for the Acceleration of Police Reform at the Ministry of State Secretariat (Kemensetneg) offices in Jakarta on Wednesday November 26, Greenpeace Indonesia reported that many retired National Police (Polri) officers have become part of corporations.
"[It was] regarding the large number of retired Polri officers who are part of corporations", said Greenpeace Indonesia Country Director Leonard Simanjuntak following the meeting.
Simanjuntak said that these retired officers act as backers for corporations that violate the law. The presence of these retired officers influences the attitudes of police leaders in their respective regions.
"This happens in many places in this republic, even in corporations that clearly violate the law", he said.
"But having, in quotation marks, protectors in the form of retired Polri officers, high-ranking officers in many cases, who exert influence, which we certainly know in our culture, and in the highly hierarchical culture of Polri, will still be listened to by the Polri leaders in those areas", he added.
In addition to this, Greenpeace also highlighted the repressive attitude of the police when securing public demonstrations, particularly against environmental activists.
"Even peaceful demonstrations held by the public, indigenous peoples, local communities, activists, who are then faced with excessive police violence", said Simanjuntak.
Not forgotten, Greenpeace also highlighted the recent Constitutional Court (MK) ruling Number 114/PUU-XXIII/2025, which prohibits active police officers from holding positions outside Polri, which is not retroactive.
According to Simanjuntak, the placement of active police officers in civilian government agencies has the potential to create a conflict of interest.
"It can, one of the phenomena is the placement of high-ranking Polri officers in institutions, which of course, we already know the MK has issued a ruling requiring them to resign, because up until now this has indeed created a situation where conflicts of interest are highly potential, or have even occurred in many instances", he said.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Greenpeace Lapor Banyak Purnawirawan Polri Jadi Beking Korporasi".]
