Tinted car window film rules to be effective in February
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A new regulation on tinted car window film, currently being drafted by the Jakarta Transportation Agency, is expected to become effective as of February.
Agency head Rustam Effendy revised his own statement made on Wednesday that the opacity limit for tinted film is 60 percent, correcting it to a 30 percent opacity.
Government Regulation No. 44/1993 stipulates that car windows can be fitted with tinted film of a limited opacity.
Rustam warned car owners that those who violated the regulation by fitting higher opacity film would face up to three months' imprisonment or a maximum Rp 5 million (US$595) fine.
He argued that a new regulation was needed to monitor private car owners who had been trying to trick officers at checkpoints of the three-in-one restricted zone.
The issue arose following the high number of violations recorded during the extended three-in-one traffic policy along the busway corridor from Blok M, South Jakarta, to Kota, West Jakarta, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Police and traffic agency officials recorded 1,092 violations on Monday and 870 violations were recorded by police on Tuesday. It is not known how many of these involved high-opacity tinted windows.
"Many motorists do not take the policy seriously. They think we are just bluffing," Rustam said. "The regulation is also made for their own safety, because officers can monitor what is happening inside passing cars."
The regulation is not new to the capital. In the early 1990s, a similar ruling was imposed on all passenger cars, including those of government officials, by then-coordinating minister for political affairs and security Sudomo.
Sudomo banned all cars -- except his own for security reasons -- from putting tinted films on car windows, following a plan to enforce a law that required private cars to carry at least four passengers from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. throughout Jakarta.
For many Jakartans, the plan to regulate the opacity of tinted films on car windows will spell further trouble.
Onny, a 30-year-old resident of Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta, said he had put tinted films on his car windows for his own comfort and safety.
"The tinted films shield us from sunlight and also prevent criminals from seeing in. They often target cars without tinted windows," he said.
He slammed the regulation as only an effort to make it easy for police to pick out violators of the three-in-one policy.
"The regulation is made to make their jobs easy, and is not for our safety on the streets -- nor does it consider the possibility that it will make us potential targets of criminals at intersections," he said.
"Whenever the government imposes a new regulation, the public must bow before it."