Damar Harsanto
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
While members of the legislature have the option of spending
\nthe night at a five-star hotel near the House of Representatives
\n(DPR)\/People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) building, a number of
\npolicemen who are assigned to secure the event have to sleep in
\nthe dark on the ground at the building compound, with mosquitoes
\nfor company.<\/p>\n
\"Look at our barracks for yourself. No electricity, no TV set,
\nnot even an electric lamp. The only facility is some new mats we
\nbought with our own money to sleep on,\" Second brig. Agus Tahyana
\ntold The Jakarta Post on Monday.<\/p>\n
\"We must be accustomed to sleeping in the open air, totally
\nexposed to mosquito attacks here,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Agus, who has camped there for four nights along with hundreds
\nof other police personnel, said that although the situation at
\nthe compound during the session was relatively normal, they had
\nbeen ordered to remain vigilant at the compound until the end of
\nthe session.<\/p>\n
The session will be over on Friday.<\/p>\n
Another police officer, Second brig. Sigit Noviadi, said they
\nhad managed to arrange their work schedule so that it included a
\nswitch every two hours.<\/p>\n
\"Every two hours, someone takes a rest, while others are on
\nduty,\" Sigit said, citing that such switches were needed to
\nmaintain the stamina of police personnel, while carrying out
\ntiring and boring tasks.<\/p>\n
Not only did they sometimes feel bored, there were also times
\nwhen they would face strong protest from MPR members and
\njournalists, when police officers wanted to check their ID cards.<\/p>\n
Bambang said many MPR members and other very important people
\n(VIPs), as well as journalists, sometimes did not bring their
\npass cards with them and got upset when they were asked to show
\ntheir identity cards. Some of them, he added, had filed a
\ncomplaint with the commander, claiming that some police officers
\nhad hampered them in doing their jobs.<\/p>\n
Bambang called on them to follow the security procedures,
\nwhatever their position or profession.<\/p>\n
There was no special allowance for police officers who
\nsafeguarded the compound, said Bambang.<\/p>\n
\"We get no allowance here. We are only given food and drink
\nfor our subsistence,\" he said.<\/p>\n
According to Agus, sometimes police personnel were given a
\nbonus of as much as Rp 60,000 (US$5.70) at the end of the
\noperation.<\/p>\n
\"However, such honoraria are not always distributed for every
\noperation,\" he said.<\/p>\n
City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said
\nearlier on Monday that the police had not yet received the funds,
\ntotaling Rp 900 million to Rp 1 billion, which were needed to
\nsecure the Assembly Annual Session.<\/p>\n
\"To provide food for the police every day, we have had to
\nborrow from our operational resources,\" Anton said.<\/p>\n
The police would return the money once the funds had been
\ndisbursed, Anton said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/damar-harsanto-1447899208",
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