When is a drink a matter of security?

Agung Widjaja, a reporter with the Hukumonline website, has found security measures at the MPR complex to be a bit excessive.

Instead of doing their main job, which is to serve and to protect, the security guards deployed to guard the Annual Session have created enmity among reporters. This time they banned Agung from bringing a bottle of water inside the Assembly's meeting hall.

"For security reasons," Agung said, quoting the guards.

Agung is known among his fellow reporters for his habit of always bringing food and water in his backpack.

Listening to legislators' speeches for hours on end was not a comfortable job without some water, he said.

Unfortunately, Agung's water container was covered with stainless steel which, to the security guards, looked more or less like an explosive. Perhaps that was the reason the security guards removed his water container from the meeting hall. -- JP