Budi Waseso used to be the head detective for the National Police, but he was an incredibly controversial and criticized figure for the cases he pursued, most especially his flimsy cases against former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leaders Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto. After mounting calls for Waseso to be fired, he was finally forced out of his position.
But instead of getting fired for his actions, Waseso was made the head of another law enforcement agency, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) where he seems poised to make more trouble.
Even before being sworn in as the head of BNN on Tuesday (during a ceremony in which he tripped over the words to an anti-bribery oath, multiple times), Budi already had people worried by saying that Indonesia’s policy of rehabilitating drug users was too lenient and was used as a loophole by drug dealers to get light sentences.
Yesterday, Budi backed off the idea of eliminating rehabilitation for drug users altogether, but was adamant that rehab was the wrong way to solve the country’s drug problems as it is a drain on the country’s resources.
“It means the country is losing out twice. Not only do [drugs] destroy future generations, it forces us to bear the costs of rehabilitation,” Budi said yesterday as quoted by Tempo.
But Budi said the role of rehab should be evaluated by various parties, including the Ministry of Justice as well as human rights and legal advocates.
“This idea should be presented in a discussion. My idea will not necessarily approved after it is reviewed from various angles,” he said.
Hopefully other members of the government will quickly squash any notions Budi has of repealing Indonesia’s rehabilitation policies as it has been empirically been proven to work here.
