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)