TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Councilor dies after attack
North Sumatra Provincial Legislative Council Speaker Abdul Aziz Angkat died of a heart attack at Gleni International Hospital on Tuesday, hours after he was set upon by a mob outside of the council building in Medan
Change Size
N
orth Sumatra Provincial Legislative Council Speaker Abdul Aziz Angkat died of a heart attack at Gleni International Hospital on Tuesday, hours after he was set upon by a mob outside of the council building in Medan.
Chairman of the United Development Party’s (PPP) North Sumatra chapter Fadly Nurzal said Aziz had died at about 12:45 p.m.
“I have just received official confirmation that Pak Aziz died of a heart attack. We must accept this as fate,” he said.
Fadly said he regretted the anarchic action taken by a group of protesters, which he added may have triggered the heart attack.
“We should take a lesson from this not to force our will [on others]. Establishing a new region is good but it should not be achieved through bad means.”
Aziz was attacked by protesters rallying against the council’s decision to postpone a plenary meeting to discuss a recommendation for a new province, called Tapanuli, to be created that had been scheduled for Wednesday.
“We postponed the plenary meeting to discuss the recommendation because there had not been a quorum during a leadership meeting to set our agenda,” another PPP councilor, Apriadi, told the Post.
The crowd of about 2,000 protesters forced their way into the council building moments after the council had concluded the first out of three plenary meetings scheduled for the day and crowded around Aziz, hitting and kicking him and causing him to collapse.
The police were unable to quickly evacuate Aziz and his colleagues from the building because the Tapanuli province supporters had sealed the council compound and barricaded the entrance gates using trucks. The police engaged the protesters, eventually forcing them away from the compound.
Medan City Police chief, Sr. Comr. Aton Suhartono, denied allegations that there were not enough officers assigned to safeguard the council building.
“The plenary meeting hall was tightly guarded but the crowd suddenly broke through and entered the hall,” he said.
Dean of the Social and Political Sciences Faculty at the North Sumatra University M. Arif Nasution said the demands for the creation of new provinces in North Sumatra had been masked by religious and ethnic tension. The proposed Tapanuli province is mapped to the current domain of the predominately Christian Batak Toba ethnic group. The proposed Southeast Sumatra province would border with the areas dominated by the Batak Angkola-Mandailing ethnic group, which is predominately Muslim.
“But the issue is much more relevant in Tapanuli province which is actually only championed by a number of people,” Arif said.
He said the proposal to create Tapanuli province had been politicized and that it was at heart a religious and ethnic conflict. He added the proposal was a maneuver to attract supporters ahead of the April 9 legislative elections.
North Sumatra Governor Syamsul Arifin said he would take stern action against the protesters, including the rally coordinator.
“We expect all North Sumatra residents not to be incited by religious and ethnic issues related to this incident,” he said. "The incident is not related to any race, religion or ethnicity.”
North Sumatra Provincial Police chief Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarna said seven people had been named suspects in the rally.
“According to medical reports [from the hospital], the victim died of a heart attack. He had previously undergone cardiac bypass surgery."
