Politics and Governance in Indonesia: The Police in the Era of Reformasi by Muradi

Author:Muradi [Muradi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethnic Studies, Social Science, Political Science, Regional Studies, General
ISBN: 9781317692447
Google: Oa3AAwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 23220776
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-06-05T00:00:00+00:00

The ‘Markus’ in the police

The term ‘Markus’ is an abbreviation of makelar kasus, literally ‘case trader’ or ‘case broker’. The term itself refers to case brokering that arranges links between various parties to reach common ground and agreement, and is usually applied to brokers involved in major cases at national level. In various cases handled by the Polri, from criminals to political or economic problems, a Markus is attached to the suspect or charged person and positions them to take advantage of the processing procedures and issues related to police roles.

The Markus at Polri headquarters usually have a background as retired police, former high officials, businessmen or politicians, especially the first two categories. In recent times, based on my observations at Polri headquarters, it is very difficult to distinguish between police officers and people who work as Markus. A senior officer told me that there were only a few Markus identified in the Polri headquarters. One of them had been arrested for his involvement in a case with the former Bareskrim head Susno Duadji.20 Meanwhile, two other Markus are a businessman of Chinese descent and a former high-ranking officer in the Polri. Neither of them has yet been revealed because they have specialities in handling cases at Polri headquarters. The businessman focuses on economic cases, such as the smuggling of luxury cars and electronic goods. The retired officer mostly deals with criminal cases and narcotics, as well as procurement of communication equipment, network communications, and various other tenders in the Polri.21

The existence of Markus at Polri headquarters reflects a view that the Polri is as an institution that is not transparent, clean, or strongly committed to becoming a professional and independent institution. The Polri is easily infiltrated, and many personnel want to take advantage. The presence of Markus after the Polri disassociated from the ABRI become stronger than in the era of the New Order or the previous regime.

The process of case handling by Markus involves establishing a personalized access and relationship with the suspect. There are three stages of case handling that attract the attention of Markus. First, the case is still at filing stage and is being explored by the Polri, while the suspect has not yet been detained by police. In this context, the fee demanded is not too large, depending on the case.

If a Markus becomes involved in the second stage of a similar case, when the case filing is already complete and the Polri is deciding whether the suspect should be detained or not, the Markus’ fee will be higher, not less than Rp.1 billion.

Third, if the ‘P21’ stage has been already reached, when the prosecution file has been completed and is ready for the trial process, which means that it will be delegated to the Attorney General, the suspect will have to pay more than Rp.5 billion because prosecutors and courts will now have to be paid off as well as the Polri headquarters.

These stages open opportunities for Markus and crooked police to take advantage.

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