A game called raid
A game called raid
Overpopulation and urbanization problems continue to be a
headache for the Jakarta administration. Today, the city is still
looking for an effective and humanistic solution.
The problem is not only due to imbalanced development in many
regions and the population's high mobility, but also due to the
Jakarta administration's poor implementation of its operation by
public order officers.
That is why there have been so many fruitless attempts to curb
urbanization and why these attempts have provoked protest from
various members of society.
There has been a lot of trial and error in this business and
tomorrow will be no better as long as officials do not learn from
experience. Officials have always given self-justifying answers
to criticism and tried to defend errant public order officers.
Checking a citizen's ID card may be legal but what about
prosecuting those without travel documents as happened earlier
this week? Many have said it was a blatant act which
inconvenienced -- if not victimized -- innocent people.
On Tuesday, 182 people were netted in an operation in West
Jakarta conducted by the City Population Agency. They were tried
on the spot for their failure to produce ID cards. Among those
netted were students from other provinces on vacation here. They
failed to produce travel documents or documents from neighborhood
chiefs of where they were staying in the city.
The full legality of this week's operation has been questioned
by head of the City Council and former chief of the Jakarta
Police, Maj. Gen. MH Ritonga.
Reacting to criticism of this week's operation, head of the
City Population Agency said "the officers who netted the people
without travel documents might have committed some errors or did
not have adequate knowledge about the rules". This statement does
not seem very logical, especially coming from the operation's
leader.
Another official said Tuesday there was no reason for people
to complain about the difficulty of processing ID cards in
Jakarta. But victims of the operation and other longtime
residents here have long fretted about city officers imposing
illegal levies on those applying for new ID cards or those
applying for an extension of their old ones.
The graft has apparently been carried out so systematically
that those affected can find no way to register their complaints.
If we study the operation, the problem is not in its legality
but rather the method. The wrong system has been repeated and
improperly applied. It seems that after 50 years of running this
city, officials have yet to find a civilized way to treat its
citizens.
Last year, students in Kuningan, South Jakarta, protested a
midnight crackdown on allegedly illegal residents after public
order officers raided boarding houses in the area without
permission, forcing people into the street and rudely asking them
to produce ID cards.
If we were to retrace these raids back to the 1970s we would
find the list very long. It is hoped, therefore, that city
authorities make this week's operation their last.
It comes as no surprise that people beg the government to
conduct operations against public order officers, who like to
prey on residents, especially less-privileged members of our
society.