Sutarman said on Monday that he had been unable to issue a regulation regarding headscarves as part of a uniform due to budgetary issues.
He had recently announced a decision to allow policewomen in the country to wear headscarves while on duty if they thought as it was their human right to do so.
"Wearing a headscarf is a human right. Policewomen in Aceh already wear headscarves. However, adjustments need to be made so that the color of headscarves worn by policewomen can look uniform," he said during a coordination meeting of the National Police Commission (Kompolnas).
Sutarman further stated that he was afraid that unless the relevant regulation was formulated, headscarves would look disorderly.
"Adjustments must be made so that no one can simply wear a shirt with part of it being let loose and others tucking it inside their trousers or one policewoman wearing a headscarf of a certain color and others using separate colors, which might stress their affiliation to certain political parties," he said.
Sutarman added that the police still had no budget to procure headscarves and that he would immediately submit a proposal for it before the House of Representatives so that if approved it could be included in the 2014 national budget.
"We will first discuss it to find an agreement. We must not decide by ourselves. If the current regulation needs to be revised, we will do it and only after that will such a move be implemented," he said.
He pointed out that so far he had issued regulation Number Pol: Skep/702/IX/2005 regarding official uniform for police members and police civil servants.
With regards to headscarves for policewomen, Sutarman reiterated that he was unable to issue any regulation regarding the same at the moment because of budgetary issues.
Reporting by Juwita Trisna Rahayu
(H-YH/INE/B003)
EDITED BY INE
(KR-BSR/B003)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
