Unequal justice

From Neraca

Sometime ago Metro Jaya Police detained scalpers of vehicle licenses, like car licenses on Jl. Daan Mogot, West Java. Later we learnt that the scalpers had been released after promising not to make the same error.

The media has recently been dominated by stories of car license scalpers being arrested. The odd thing is that the number of scalpers have not decreased, and they can still be found milling around the license office. It looks as if they were given a free hand in their operations without the remote prospective of getting caught. The latest offenders were released without being penalized.

After observing this kind of news in the media and bearing witness to such activities in the field, I have drawn the conclusion that the problem of these scalpers is not being handled seriously. If the problem was taken seriously, scalpers who were caught would have been given stiffer penalties and would have been discouraged against repeating such acts.

Aside from giving heavy penalties to car license scalpers, an even heavier penalty should be given to cooperating officials within the license office. Scalpers cannot do much without the support of respective department officials. So far only the activities of scalpers has been targeted while officials involved in the racket went free. Both scalpers and license officials should have been punished by the police!

HENDARMIN YUSUF

Jakarta