45 people fined in ID raids
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
North Jakarta and Central Jakarta municipalities fined a total of 45 people on Tuesday for not having proper identity cards during two raids at Wisma Gading Permai apartment in Kelapa Gading Timur, North Jakarta, and at boarding houses in Petamburan, Central Jakarta.
The fines, ranging between Rp 10,000 (US$1.18) and Rp 27,000, were decided during on-the-spot trials.
Each municipality deploys a team of officials from the Population Agency, subdistrict and district offices, policemen, a judge and a prosecutor as well as a defending lawyer.
Todo Sipayung, head of the population monitoring and surveillance unit at the North Jakarta Population Agency, said that the people were fined for violating the city bylaw on population regulations that stipulates all citizens to report to subdistrict office when they move.
During the raids, the North Jakarta team withheld 86 ID cards.
"After further examination, only 19 of the ID cards owners did not have proper documents and we put them on trial," he said.
One of the apartment tenants, who declined to be named, told The Jakarta Post that he had to drive back from work because his wife, whose ID card was withheld, called him and asked him to accompany her during the trial.
"She had to pay the Rp 27,000 fine because her address on the ID card is not this apartment," he complained. "The raid was annoying and unfair. Many tenants were not here, so they could just get away."
The raids were the first after the Idul Fitri holiday that ended on Nov. 28. The city administration conducts such raids annually to curb unskilled migrants from entering the capital.
The subject of the raids are people who do not have proper ID cards, including those whose address on the ID cards are different from their actual addresses.
General manager of the apartment, Sudjono Kusumo, said that he had yet to receive any complaints from tenants about the raids.
"During the trials, I just heard many tenants grumbling... But I can't refuse the raids because I have to support the administration," he said.
In Petamburan, head of the population monitoring and surveillance unit at the Central Jakarta Population Agency, Setio Budiono, revealed that his team had withheld 52 ID cards and put 26 of the owners on the on-the-spot trial.
"The 26 people were found living in boarding houses in Petamburan," he told the Post by phone.
All five municipalities are scheduled to conduct further ID card raids on Thursday.