Over 4,000 deployed for discipline drive

Over 4,000 deployed for discipline drive

JAKARTA (JP): The City Military Command has mobilized 4,600
officers and volunteers to reinforce the implementation of the
city administration's discipline campaign.

They were dispatched to all quarters of the metropolitan in a
ceremony led by the city military's chief Maj. Gen. Wiranto at
city military headquarters yesterday.

Wiranto, who is also chief of the Jakarta chapter of the
national security agency, said that the campaign will last about
one year.

Present at the ceremony were Jakarta Vice Governor Idroes,
City Deputy Police Chief Brig. Gen. Hamami Nata, and head of the
city attorney office, Suyoto.

Also dispatched with the officers was a team of judges
assigned to try, on the spot, people breaking regulations, or
believed to have disrupted public order.

The security and order operations are aimed at improving
public awareness about public order. Having people stand in
queues, disposing of garbage in litter bins and teaching people
to be "polite" will be among their main jobs.

Wiranto reminded that Jakarta has been chosen as model in the
ongoing national discipline campaign launched by President
Soeharto last month.

The Jakarta security agency is called in to help make the
drive a success, he said.

"If the most crowded, busiest, richest, and ethnically most
heterogeneous city of Indonesia can exercise discipline, all
cities throughout Indonesia can easily follow suit," he said.

"You (law enforcers) should become pioneers of the national
discipline drive," he added.

The General stressed that the authorities would take strict
action against people who violate government regulations on
public security and order.

But he reminded that the law enforcers should take a
"persuasive" approach first and take repressive measures only as
a last resort.

"Often, discipline cannot be upheld without repressive
measures," Wiranto said.

He also promised harsh action against members of the Armed
Forces who violate the law and abuse their authority. They will
be handled by the military police, he added.

Data at military headquarters shows that less than one percent
of Jakarta's 40,000 military personnel were dealt with for
disciplinary reasons.

Vice Governor Idroes acknowledged that the routine discipline
drive has often struck a brick wall because of the inadequate
number of public facilities, such as crossing bridges and buses.

City officials have acknowledged that the lack of crossing
bridges has often tempted people to cross streets illegally.

However, Idroes added, the public should not use inadequate
public facilities as an excuse to be undisciplined. (29)