Modes of extortion<\/p>\n
After reading A. Djuana's letter (The Jakarta Post July 1,
\n1995) under the title "New mode of deceit," I began to realize
\nthe many tactics for extracting money which are practiced in
\nJakarta. The "trickery" employed by the hoodlums who feign injury
\nafter purposely knocking themselves against the sides of slow-
\nmoving cars and later demand money in compensation for their
\n"injuries," as related in the letter published in The Jakarta
\nPost, is certainly not an isolated case.<\/p>\n
Recently, I stopped my car at the Sisingamangaraja-Trunojoyo
\njunction, South Jakarta, waiting for the traffic lights to turn
\ngreen. It was rather late at night then and there were very few
\ncars around.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, a rather big, hefty and fierce-looking young man
\nappeared and approached my car, holding a big stone in his right
\nhand. Knocking the stone against the windscreen and driver's
\nwindow of my Mercedes, he demanded money, shouting "Duit, duit!,"
\n("money, money!").<\/p>\n
However, he took his heels when my wife, sitting next to me,
\nsounded the horn repeatedly to attract public attention. I thus
\nmanaged to escape from his extortion attempt.<\/p>\n
But, if that incident involved a hoodlum, I have experienced
\nanother episode of attempted broad day extortion and trickery
\ninvolving a white-collared, smartly dressed person of some
\nauthority.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport also not
\ntoo long ago. I was then sending off an Indonesian domestic
\nhelper who was leaving Indonesia to join her foreign employer in
\nanother country. She had earlier been able to obtain an exemption
\nfrom payment of the exit tax (fiscal) normally imposed on
\nresidents leaving Indonesia. The exemption was granted on the
\ngrounds that her stay in Indonesia had been temporary in nature,
\nconsidering that she had earlier arrived from a foreign country
\nand was leaving for another country, after a brief transit in
\nIndonesia. The exemption was not, of course, obtained free of
\ncharge.<\/p>\n
When we reached the Immigration counter at the airport,
\nhowever, I was told that the girl needed yet another piece of
\npaper, as part of the fiscal exemption procedure, before she
\ncould be allowed to pass through the Immigration point.<\/p>\n
Bewildered, I rushed with the girl's passport and other
\ndocuments to the relevant office, as indicated by the Immigration
\nofficer.<\/p>\n
At that office, whilst the case was being processed, I was
\nasked, in a conversational style, some personal questions -- by a
\nman who was, apparently, the chief of the staff there. Three of
\nthose questions concerned my country of origin, my place of work
\nand my address in Jakarta. To my replies to those three
\nquestions, the officer responded by, respectively, indicating how
\nfortunate I was to have come from a richer country, to be able to
\nbe working in my "enviable" work place and to be privileged
\nenough to be living at my "elite" residential address in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
To each of those statements the officer also added a
\nsuggestion that I should be generous enough to "share my good
\nfortune" with him and his officers. The suggestion was, in turn,
\nfollowed up by a direct request.<\/p>\n
However, when finally the whole procedure had been completed
\nand he sought the expected "share of my good fortune" he had
\nasked for, I replied -- after having received the domestic
\nhelper's passport and all her documents and making sure that they
\nwere all safely in my hands -- that, perhaps, the next time I
\nwould pay!<\/p>\n
I then left his office, and, thereby, escaped the officer's
\nextortion bid!<\/p>\n
NGAN CUK WAK DEME<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/modes-of-extortion-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }