To protect and serve?

On Wednesday, Sept. 29, as we rode our Vespa in the Blok M area at around 6 p.m., we were stopped by a policeman who said we were traveling in the wrong lane (though we later discovered we were not in violation of any traffic rules).

No doubt, he saw two young foreign women and decided to take advantage of us.

When he stopped us, he asked for all appropriate documentation, including the vehicle registration (STNK) and drivers license, which we gave to him. He took the documents and locked them in a box on his motorbike.

At that stage, we tried to solve the problem by apologizing and asking for clarification about what we had done wrong. He asked us for Rp 250,000 for "processing costs".

We knew this was a hugely exaggerated amount and refused. He then made us follow him to a quieter location. We tried to resist and asked why we couldn't deal with the issue then and there, as we saw no need to move to a quieter location. But as he had all of our documents, we had no choice but to follow him.

When we arrived at the front of Blok M Mall, he again asked for money, again Rp 250,000 or Australian dollars. We explained that, as we worked for local non-governmental organizations, we didn't earn dollars but rupiah, and offered him Rp 50,000. He refused this amount.

He then became very inappropriate, saying, "Kamu cantik sekali, saya suka sekali sama kamu" (You are very pretty, I really like you). He then asked us about our marital status and said he wanted to marry an Australian. At this stage, we began to feel rather frightened and nervous.

A senior policeman came over, but then quickly left. Once his superior had left, the inappropriate policeman asked us for Rp 100,000 and a kiss!

In Australia, behavior such as this would constitute sexual harassment and the policeman would be punished severely. We were thus left in a very weak position and unsure of how to deal with the situation.

We debated the issue back and forth, with the policeman becoming increasingly sleazy. When one of us threatened to call our "husband" to come and assist us, the policeman quickly resolved the issue, accepted the Rp 50,000 and returned our documents.

Unfortunately, he was not wearing a name tag or any form of identification, and as we were shocked and scared, we did not ask him for this information.

In the words of this particular policeman, "the police are here to serve the people". Yet, how can we be expected to trust the people with power when this power is abused?

K.A. SHANAHAN, Jakarta