Indonesia: Police corruption | Exclusive Susno Interview: I Was All Alone In Exposing Graft

As a rare bright spot during the scandal, Susno’s whistle-blowing has led to the conviction of two officers, a judge and a group of lawyers. Two prosecutors were charged with leaking top-secret prosecution dossiers. 

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Globe
By Nivell Rayda | March 26, 2011

Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji never doubted that exposing corruption in the police force would be a lonely fight — but he did not realize just how difficult it would be.

In an exclusive interview with the Jakarta Globe after he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on Friday, the police general revealed the blows he had suffered during the bitter battle.

Read the full interview in Saturday's Jakarta Globe newspaper.


The National Police chief of detectives said he became a virtual pariah among his former colleagues after he publicly accused fellow generals of acting as case brokers in Gayus Tambunan’s money-laundering case.

His graft claims, delivered during a House of Representatives hearing last year, was meant to shake the police’s foundations.

“I’ve always known I was alone in the battle to reform the police and punish the rogue officials within the force,” he said.

But his crusade for justice came to a grinding halt when he was arrested for accepting bribes while handling a fish-farm dispute as well as embezzling election-security funds during his stint as West Java police chief.

He dismissed the charges as attempts by some law enforcers to gag him or get back at him. But on Thursday, his denials were harder to substantiate after he was convicted for taking Rp 500 million ($57,500) in bribes and stealing Rp 8.4 billion in funds earmarked for security during the 2008 West Java gubernatorial election.

Susno said he was “saddened and infuriated” that not a single police officer supported him in his battle. Even his wife, Herawati, said former friends and officers’ wives avoided her.

As a rare bright spot during the scandal, Susno’s whistle-blowing has led to the conviction of two officers, a judge and a group of lawyers. Two prosecutors were charged with leaking top-secret prosecution dossiers.

But top officers said to be deeply involved remained untouched.

Hardened by his ordeal, Susno, once described by peers as cocky, now chooses his words carefully, avoiding controversial topics that might hurt his chance of winning his appeal.


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