REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian Police Watch (IPW) has urged the National Police to end the corrupt practices prevalent among various institutions and top-ranking officials in the country.
"The police must spearhead efforts to eradicate corruption. To achieve that, the police must become a `broom' and sweep away the corruption," IPW Presidium Chairman Neta S Pane told Antara here on Monday.
In the pursuit of this goal, the police must first eradicate corruption within its own force, while undertaking efforts to improve public trust.
"It is time for the police to prioritize efforts to eradicate corruption within the force, before tackling corruption in other institutions," Pane added.
He urged police investigators to consistently fight corruption and never give up.
Pane also reminded National Police Chief General Sutarman of his pledge made during the `fit and proper' test by the Parliament's Commission III when he was a candidate to succeed the former police chief, General Timur Prodopo.
"Sutarman needs to take concrete action to eradicate corruption," he said.
"He must investigate corrupt practices regarding vehicles' police numbers (TNKB) and other cases involving large bank accounts of high-ranking police officers," he noted on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day.
The United Nations has designated December 9 as International Anti-Corruption Day. This year's campaign is called "Zero Corruption-100 Percent Development" and aims to reinforce the idea that development can thrive only when societies tackle the root causes of corruption.
The joint campaign, launched by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), focuses on the corrosive effects of corruption on development.
The campaign aims to highlight that crime undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to human rights violations, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organized crime and other threats to security to flourish.
"Corruption is a barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and needs to be taken into account while defining and implementing a robust post-2015 development agenda", United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated in his message to mark the occasion.