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."