Responding to a call from a local NGO to close down public order agencies all over the country, the administration has assured those agencies are here to stay.
“The [public order] agency has become an inseparable part of the city administration since it has helped us enforce bylaws and gubernatorial decrees in Jakarta,” Deputy Governor Prijanto said Tuesday.
Prijanto also denied an accusation saying public order officers tended to work using an abusive approach.
“It is true that sometimes they became emotional [when performing their job] but it mostly happened after they were provoked by the people they were dealing with,” he said.
“Moreover, it is expected that all regulations on public order will potentially trigger a clash between the administration and people who are directly threatened by the regulations.”
On Monday, the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial) urged city administrations all over the country to dismiss their public order agencies, following repeated incidents of alleged violence committed by the agencies’ officers, locally known as Satuan Polisi Pamong Praja (Satpol PP).
The NGO said the existence of the public order agency had led its and the City Police’s roles overlapping, as the former could arrest people without a warrant.
However, this authority, said to be excessive, has linked Satpol PP officers with a number of cases of violent attacks when they were enforcing the law against illegal street vendors, squatters, street children and sex workers, among others.
On May 18, a woman in Tangerang died while fleeing a Satpol PP raid. She was being pursued by officers throwing stones at her and plunged into a nearby river.
A week earlier, during a raid on street vendors in Surabaya, East Java, a young girl was scalded by a pot of boiling soup tipped on her during a chase between her mother and the officers. She died a few days later.
Similar incidents also happened in Jakarta.
In August, some 1,400 families were evicted from Bersih, Manusiawi and Wibawa (Clean, Humane and Dignified) Park, known locally as the BMW park, located near the Ancol toll road, North Jakarta, as the administration planned to build an international soccer stadium there.
The BMW park eviction turned into a melée with scores of public order officials and squatters ending up injured.
Last month, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) shared its concern about the agency’s excessive powers, saying the repeated violent incidents had demonstrated Satpol PP officers abused their power.
Some laws stipulate that public order officers operate in a similar way to the police, including Law No.32/2004, which gives public order officers the authority to carry out security and intelligence gathering work. Based on this law, public order officers can legally take any action, even if it violates the law, providing it is based on the premise of maintaining public order.
Prijanto, however, said the best way to prevent Satpol PP officers from working inappropriately was by continuously evaluating their work approach.
“For example, if the Satpol PP officers want to stop street vendors from operating in certain areas, they can come earlier to ‘occupy’ the place, to avoid any physical contact between them,” he said. (hwa)
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