'I doubt Adiguna will be punished'

'I doubt Adiguna will be punished'

Police have submitted the case of Adiguna Sutowo, the sole
suspect in the murder of waiter Yohannes "Rudy" Berchmans Haerudy
Natong, to the Attorney-General's Office, but Jakartans still
have their doubts whether justice will be served. The following
are excerpts from interviews The Jakarta Post did on Friday.

Mulyadi, 41, is a civil servant at the Jati Padang subdistrict
office in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta. He lives in Ragunan, also
in South Jakarta.

I doubt if a wealthy person like Adiguna Sutowo will ever be
punished for what he has done. I appreciate what the police have
done so far but law enforcers do not only include the police but
also prosecutors and judges.

From what I know, as soon as this case is submitted to
prosecutors, media coverage will go down and people will quickly
forget. Look what happened in the case of Nurdin Halid and Adrian
Waworuntu.

If people forget, Adiguna will use his power and wealth to
influence the legal process. He will bribe witnesses and law
officers. I predict that he will be sentenced to only one or two
years in prison.

Wati, 27, is a counter attendant at a mall in Central Jakarta.
She lives with her family in Manggarai, South Jakarta.

Actually, I don't really care if people have guns or not, as
long as I can get home safely from my work place every night. I
don't know if the policy to give gun licenses to civilians has
anything to do with armed robbery, but if it does, then I totally
disagree with it.

What I really worry about is my own safety when I am out of
the house. I get very worried that criminals will rob or rape me
as I read that many people fall victim to armed robbery. I think
the police should concentrate on protecting us instead of giving
out gun licenses.

They should learn from this Adiguna case, and prevent the same
thing happening again.

Leo, 32, works as a freelance writer and translator. He resides
in Serpong, Tangerang.

I think it is too risky to let civilians own guns. We must
acknowledge that most people are not mature enough to be able to
use firearms properly. We should learn from the bloody incident
at the Hilton hotel. An educated businessman, like Adiguna
(Sutowo), could become so childish and emotional and pull the
trigger. Even worse incidents could happen if we allowed
civilians to freely own guns. This incident portrays how our
society is simply not ready to let civilians to possess firearms.

The key, I think, is in the level of awareness of our society
to the law. As long as respect for the law remains relatively
low, we cannot be sure that people who possess firearms will use
them responsibly.