REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian police allegedly took side with corporations rather than public, National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) criticized. "The police tend to listen more to corporations," said Ridha Saleh, a deputy chief of Komnas HAM, Sunday, during a discussion on how the government’s behavior towards agrarian conflicts between corporations and public.

He mentioned that Komnas HAM drew that conclusion after thorough investigations on several cases such as Mesuji and Bima. The police, Ridha said, always became corporate tools to achieve its objectives, as had happened in some recent cases. 

The police should have taken side with the public instead of the corporations, although the facts spoke differently. "Many cases occur on agrarian conflicts, particularly in mining and plantation sector," he said. 

Ridha explained, at least there were three impacts caused by the police misconduct: widening gap, violence, and corporate domination over the public's interests and prosperity. The police should have set those three as its priority tasks.

Those behaviors caused public dismay, Ridha said, it was possible there were more similar cases in the future. Therefore, he demanded the government to review and evaluate the police to repair its reputation. "Those negative behaviors must be evaluated soon," he said firmly.

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