Who is he?
Gen. Tito Karnavian most recently served as head of Jakarta’s police force. Prior to that appointment in June 2015, he was the planning and budgeting assistant to the national police chief, and led Papua’s police force from 2012 to 2014. Earlier, he served as commander of Densus 88, Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism force, and a deputy in the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT). He was the top graduate of the Indonesian Police Academy in 1987, and in 2013 earned his doctorate in Strategic Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
Tito Karnavian of Indonesia. Source: Wikimedia, used under a creative commons license.
Why is he in the news?
President Joko Widodo on March 16 inaugurated Tito as the new head of the BNPT, replacing Gen. Saud Usman Nasution who is retiring. His elevation to the top counterterrorism post drew significant attention in light of the January 14 terrorist attack on Jakarta, which left 8 dead and 23 injured.
What can we expect from him?
Tito has a long and impressive track record in counterterrorism, having investigated numerous high-profile cases such as the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, the 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy, and the 2009 Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott bombings. Tito has said he will focus on the counter-terrorism agency’s work in prevention and rehabilitation. He also plans to tackle radicalization that occurs in Indonesian prisons. This is because Indonesia’s over-crowded prisons often prevent segregation of terrorists from other prisoners, allowing them to spread radical ideology or coordinate terror plans from their jail cells. In the intermediate term, the ongoing Operation Tinombala in Poso in Central Sulawesi Province — a joint operation between Indonesia’s police force and the military that aims to capture Santoso, Indonesia’s most-wanted terrorist — will likely be a crucial test of Tito’s leadership ability in his new post.
