Bali police give award to blind officer

Bali police give award to blind officer

I Wayan Juniartha
The Jakarta Post/Denpasar

In an unusually sad tone, Bali police chief Insp. Gen. Made
Mangku Pastika said something that betrayed his usual stoic
demeanor.

"Honestly, I almost cried back then. That's why I kept the
ceremony brief, to spare the audience from the sight of a general
crying his heart out," he confessed.

Pastika referred to a commendation ceremony on Friday, during
which he presented a special citation to Adj. Brig. I Nyoman
Rinteg, an outstanding officer, who refused to allow his partial
blindness to terminate his service to the public.

"His eyes are blind but his heart and conscience are not,"
Pastika said in praise.

He urged his subordinates to emulate Rinteg, who, while just a
low ranking officer, had managed to be the embodiment of the
police ideal of sincerely serving and protecting the public.

The commendation ceremony was certainly the most touching
moment during the Police Day celebration on Friday. Loud applause
filled the Bali Police headquarter's when Pastika handed the
citation to Rinteg.

"It's a mixed feeling of sorrow and joy. I am very grateful
that my superior officers, including the general, have not
forgotten me," the 40-year-old Rinteg said.

Rinteg's sight gradually deteriorated after a bad traffic
accident in November 1996. On that fateful night, after
completing his guard duty, Rinteg rode his motorbike into the
police barracks in Kubu subdistrict, some 90 kilometers east of
Denpasar.

It was a pitch dark night with heavy downpours of rain when
Rinteg hit a metal barrel left on the road by careless laborers
from a road construction company.

The accident left Rinteg with severe head injuries that forced
him to undergo several cranial operations during a 28-day long
hospital stay.

"I could only see things clearly in the morning. In the
afternoon and evening everything went blurry and colorless," he
said.

Another tragic event hit him again in March 2001 when his wife
passed away due to ovarian cancer.

"Out of pity, his superiors have repeatedly asked him to stay
at home. He does not have to do anything and he will still get
his monthly brigadier's salary," Mangku Pastika disclosed.

Rinteg flatly refused the suggestion. With steely tenacity
that won him both support and sympathy from his fellow officers,
he raised his two daughters -- one is now a university student
and the other a high school senior -- and faithfully served the
public in his new position as the telephone operator at the Kubu
police station.

"I might be blind but my body is healthy, my mind and memory
are quite good and my appetite is even better. There is no reason
for me to stay at home. I don't want to receive any charity,
getting paid for something that I have not rightfully earned," he
said.

"Moreover, being a police officer has always been my dream
since I was a child. I will not let this blindness destroy my
dream."