Policeman gets the axe after militant Muslim raid
Blontank Poerwoko, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta
A middle-ranking police officer here was removed from his post on Wednesday, a day after Muslim hard-liners raided at least two local restaurants and destroyed hundreds of bottles of alcoholic beverages.
The dismissal of Adj. Comr. Zaenal Arifin was for his failure to prevent the Muslim extremists from taking the law into their own hands, said a top Surakarta police officer. Zaenal is believed to be the first police officer in the country to receive such stiff punishment for failing to prevent an attack of this type during Ramadhan.
The police officer was also found guilty of "allowing" the restaurants to sell alcohol during Ramadhan, said Zaenal's superior Sr. Comr. Abdul Madjid, the chief of the Surakarta police.
The report of the incident apparently angered the Central Java police chief Insp. Gen. Chaerul Rasjid. Stunned by the vandalism during the holy month, General Chaerul reportedly briefed all local police chiefs in the province on Wednesday and told them that the incident in Surakarta had to be the last.
"If a police officer fails to follow orders, I'm telling you that he or she has to be replaced," declared the two-star police general.
Separately, Zaenal, the Grogol police chief, confirmed he was not near the restaurants on Jl. Langenharjo in Surakarta when about 50 hard-liners calling themselves the Coalition of the Surakarta Muslim Community raided and attacked the restaurants. However, he argued that he was on his way there when the incident erupted. "I had almost reached the street when one of my superiors prevented me from going for fear of fatalities. He told me the number of protesters was quite large," said Zaenal. At least four people were injured and two restaurants were damaged after the attack on Monday night by a number of groups, including the Islam Defenders Front (FPI).
In a separate development, General Chaerul deplored the attack and ordered his men to hunt down and bring to justice all perpetrators in the attacks. "The police have often called on people not to take the law into their own hands. We regret that this has not been heeded," said Chaerul, as quoted by Antara news agency.
Chaerul's stance may indicate that police plan to get tougher on extremist Muslim groups, which have in recent years taken to raiding restaurants and cafes during Ramadhan with seeming impunity. Such attacks, which usually involve lots of bottle smashing, have so far been neglected by police at the expense of cafe owners and workers. However, this year, the police force, under the national leadership of Gen. Sutanto has shown an uncompromising posture against the religious vigilantes. Another example of the police force's uncompromising stance was demonstrated on Tuesday, when eight members of the FPI were arrested by West Jakarta police for weapons possession during a rally held in front of the police headquarters. The FPI members were protesting what they deemed to be an overly slow investigation into a clash on Sunday between themselves and residents of Kalijodo in West Jakarta, a red-light district, in which a handful of FPI men were injured.