65 brokers of vehicle papers arrested
65 brokers of vehicle papers arrested
JAKARTA (JP): The military police captured 65 "go-betweens" at
both the vehicular document and driver's license services at the
city police headquarters.
They included 10 women and one man who had stolen a vehicular
document.
"It is part of Operation Cleansing," said Lt. Col. Latief
Rabar, spokesman for the city police.
He talked to reporters yesterday afternoon in the company of
Capt. Petrus, chief of the order surveillance office of the
military police directorate, and Maj. Anton Bachrul Alam, the
newly-installed chief of the driver's license service at the city
police headquarters.
Petrus said the 65 go-betweens had been caught during several
days of sweeping.
According to Petrus, the suspected thief of vehicle document
had been transferred to the investigation directorate for further
examination "since his action is a crime."
The suspect, identified as IS, 20, a resident of Ciracas
subdistrict, East Jakarta, was captured on Wednesday while he was
applying for a vehicular document of a "Mercedes Benz" using a
faked document.
Petrus said the suspect had stolen the vehicular document of a
motorbike at the service and altered the bike's identity printed
on the document with that of the Mercedes Benz.
"It is the task of the investigators to find out how he stole
the document and changed the vehicular identity," said Petrus.
The other go-betweens would soon be transferred to the South
Jakarta mayoral security and order office "since their action is
only considered as a violation of the municipal regulations",
said Petrus.
Offenders
"Under our law, unauthorized brokering is a minor wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, we shall consistently clear away all the offenders
from this place," promised Petrus, who led the team of military
police in capturing the offenders yesterday.
None among the offenders were police officers or people who
claimed themselves journalists, which was the case in previous
raids, said Petrus.
Unauthorized brokering remains a problem at the services,
which is ascribed on one hand to the reluctance of the public to
apply for the driver's licenses or vehicular documents
themselves, and on the officers at the service who are ill-paid.
An applicant of a driver's license, who uses the service of
go-betweens, often pay twice as much as the real cost -- less
than Rp 60,000 (US$28) -- but they can avoid many tests in
exchange.
The military police often make sweeping arrests of the
brokers. But due to too mild a punishment it incurs under the
municipal law, many of the offenders return to their profession
after paying a maximum of Rp 10,000 ($4.60) in fines to the
mayoral security and order office.
Anton said he would try his best to clear away the service
from unauthorized broker activities and to adopt punitive
measures against his recalcitrant subordinates.
"I'll try my best, but I can't do it without help from many
parties, including the journalists," said Anton. (jsk)