Hendro warns recalcitrant liquor producers and importers
Hendro warns recalcitrant liquor producers and importers
JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Hendropriyono is threatening to prosecute producers and importers of alcoholic drinks found violating governmental regulations on production and sales.
"We will take them to court if they keep churning the stuff out and flooding the city with illegal alcoholic drinks, because this conflicts with the governmental ruling," Hendro, who is also chief of Bakorstanasda Jaya (the city chapter of the Agency for the Coordination of National Stability), said as quoted by the Antara news agency on Saturday.
Hendro was speaking to journalists after opening the One-Day Dialog program on the role of the press in the future, which was organized by the Jakarta Branch of the Indonesian National Youth Council (KNPI DKI).
Liquor producers and importers in the greater Jakarta area met with officials of Bakorstanasda at the city police headquarters on Thursday. The meeting was presided over by Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto, chief of the city police.
The meeting took place following the outcry of producers and importers of alcoholic drinks about a sharp decline in their business turnover due to the ongoing Operation Cleansing (Operasi Bersih). The anti-crime drive focuses on cracking down on liquor abuse.
Thus far, at least 600,000 bottles of spirits have been seized and more than 400 drunkards captured during the anti-crime operation since it was launched on April 11.
During the meeting, Hindarto accused the producers of alcoholic drinks of breaking the regulations on permits, distribution and production quotas.
Only six registered
Quoting data from the Bakorstanasda, Hindarto said that there are only six registered liquor production plants in the city, but there are a dozen others around the capital and 23 others in East Java, which regularly market their products in the capital.
"Despite warnings from us, the producers keep churning out their products in a manner conflicting with their permits. Above all, their unlicensed suppliers have sold the drinks to children aged under 14 years," Hindarto said.
Hindarto told the producers of alcoholic drinks to withdraw all of their products, whose contents and production levels exceed the permitted levels, from the markets and drink stands in the city.
When asked why Bakorstanasda did not revoke the operating licenses of the recalcitrant alcoholic drink producers, Hendro said yesterday that was beyond the authority of his agency.
"Above all, if the plants are closed what will happen to their workers? That's why we come up with solutions whereby the interests of no parties are affected," Hendro said.
Aside from the liquor, Operation Cleansing teams have also seized hundreds of sharp weapons, and dozens of firearms and four million dangerous pills of various brands.
Commenting on drug abuse in Indonesia, Prof. Dr. Conny Semiawan of the School of Psychology of the University Indonesia said the alleged high rate of drug abuse here resulted from the weak rulings on narcotics and dangerous drugs, and a lack of political will on the part of the government to crack down on producers, traffickers and users.
Conny, speaking at a symposium on narcotics in conjunction with the National Awakening Day, was quoted by Antara as saying Saturday that the weaknesses were justified by the meager amount of budget allocated by the authorities to operations to combat the crimes.
She said other countries were in the habit of setting aside a lot of money for anti-crime operations.
Dr. Conny urged the government to promulgate strict laws on drug abuse and to allocate adequate funds to enforce them. (jsk)