Police drug raid on entertainment centers to continue
Police drug raid on entertainment centers to continue
JAKARTA (JP): The country's senior detective, Maj. Gen.
Nurfaizi, underlined here yesterday the importance of continuing
the police's routine raids on night spots in a bid to help
eliminate the distribution of drugs.
The raids were expected to remind drug dealers and users that
the police were serious in their efforts to stamp out the
problem, Nurfaizi said.
"We need to minimize the number of drug users. We all know
that the demand for drugs, particularly psychotropic ones like
Ecstasy, is very high here," he said.
Nurfaizi expressed confidence that the number of drug dealers
and their transactions would drop in line with the decreasing
number of users.
"We will not hesitate to hold the raids on entertainment
centers and other night spots in this city at any time," he said.
City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata said Tuesday that the
police raided entertainment centers and night spots because most
drug transactions took place there.
"Police raids are also aimed at disciplining such places which
violate the existing regulations, especially on opening hours,"
Hamami said at a meeting with the managements of entertainment
centers and night spots all over Jakarta.
Hamami urged the management to keep their businesses, venues
and employees clean from drugs.
According to Article 65 of the 1997 Psychotropic Law Number 5,
everybody, including institutions and companies, should report
any drug abuse, and the users, dealers and transactions, to the
police.
Those who fail to report their findings face imprisonment of
up to one year and/or a Rp 20 million (US$7,400) fine.
Those who are involved in drugs, either as users, suppliers,
or producers, face a minimum imprisonment of four years and a Rp
150 million fine as well.
The majority of the people who attended Tuesday's meeting
remained quiet. No more than four out of around a hundred, most
of whom were only staff members, asked questions or gave
comments.
One of the managers of the President Dangdut Bar and
Discotheque on Jl. Enggano in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, named
Benny, supported the police's effort to get rid of the drugs
menace, but lambasted the police's blunt manners during raids on
his venue.
"They (the officers) didn't treat us like human being. It was
like an attack. They just rushed into the room and pointed their
flashlights at our guests' faces. I just hope that it will never
happen again," Benny said.
Hamami responded to Benny's criticism by inviting
businesspeople to meet to come up with raid procedures that would
be agreeable to all parties.
The head of the Jakarta office of the Ministry of Tourism,
Post and Telecommunications, Pudjo Basuki, fully supported the
police raids.
He said they did not adversely affect the flow of either local
or overseas tourists into the city.
"I don't see the raids as problems which could have a bad
effect on Indonesian tourism at all," Pudjo said.
He said there were only a few overseas tourists who were
really interested in hanging around at night spots. Most of them
were more interested in the country's traditional culture.
"Almost all of the people, who were nabbed during raids at the
night spots, are actually our own people, who either have never
seen night spots or just visited them for personal reasons,"
Pudjo said. (cst)