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)