By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
Indonesia's president is poised to drop his choice for police chief, instead considering interim chief Badrodin Haiti and police generals Dwi Priyatno and Budi Waseso for the role.
The Jakarta Post reported a House commission deputy chairman as saying Friday that he had received word that Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had called House Speaker Setyo Novanto to inform him of the decision.
"Jokowi called Novanto on Wednesday evening to tell him he would not inaugurate Budi Gunawan and would submit a new police chief hopeful,” said Desmond J. Mahesa.
For almost one month, the country's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and National Police have been locked in a feud after Bambang Widjojanto, a KPK board member, was arrested on charges of false testimony in a 5-year-old case.
That followed the Commission's naming of Budi Gunawan - Jokowi's pick as national police chief - as a suspect in a bribery case.
Jokowi had suspended Gunawan's inauguration after Widjojanto arrest was greeted with widespread public protests.
On Friday, hundreds of anti-corruption activists again gathered outside the KPK headquarters in Jakarta, and called on the president to defend the agency. Many have alluded to an earlier conflict between the commission and the police, shouting “It's not just the crocodile confronting the gecko, but the gecko confronting the zoo."
In 2009, the former head of the Criminal Investigation Police Susno Duadji coined the phrase "cicak lawan buaya (gecko vs. crocodile )" for KPK leaders - who he saw as small geckos - daring to take on the police, whom he likened to crocodiles.
KPK's Widjojanto is accused of ordering witnesses to give false testimony in a 2010 court case while he was a lawyer.
He has since stood down from the commission and could face seven years in prison if found guilty, according to police.
Further complicating the issue is that Widodo's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), has consistently stood behind police chief choice Gunawan.
The police general has long been a close friend of party chairman Megawati Soekarno Puteri. Gunawan served as her adjutant during her terms as vice president and president between 1999 and 2004 and it is thought that any attempt to go back on the decision could cause problems between Jokowi and Megawati.
The Jakarta Post reported Jan. 27 that Megawati had gathered her “inner circle” at her official residence in Central Jakarta and demanded they fight for the installation of Gunawan.
Many analysts see the complications surrounding the appointment, and the ensuing allegations as the first real test for the Widodo's presidency. He was voted in in July last year as a people’s man who was free of corruption.
