"Dear Bapak Bambang, I do not like it here, I would rather be at home. Pak, I want to go to school again. Pak, I miss my parents, I promise I will not do what I did again. Pak..." These words from a short letter, scrawled in broken Indonesian, were written by 10-year-old Saripudin bin Basar.

He was trying to persuade a high-ranking police officer at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to free him and his nine friends from the children's penitentiary in Tangerang after they were arrested on May 29 for allegedly gambling in the area. All 10 children, shoeshiners at the airport, sent similar letters to Iptu Bambang Hermanto, the deputy head of the airport's crime unit, who was responsible for their arrest.

The arrest meant the children, aged between 10 and 18 years, could not sit their final examinations which took place in the first week of June. "We often catch *shoeshine boys and other informal sector workers*, and they keep loitering in the airport area," said Taufik Hidayat, head of the airport police crime unit.

"So we're now rounding them up as a form of shock therapy to deter other workers at the airport." Dhoho A. Sastro, director of the Community Legal Aid Institute (LBHM), disagreed.

Your comments:

Harassing these boys is absurd and mean-spirited. The rich get away with murder, literally, while the poor are trampled upon, seemingly for fun. Is this a new religious concept? Where are the so-called religious leaders?

Edward

Surely the airport security have better things to worry about. The shoeshine boys are always polite and provide a good service to travelers. I often have my shoes cleaned by them while waiting for a flight.

What I do find objectionable are the hordes of cowboy taxi drivers causing a nuisance in the arrival area, when there are plenty of good official taxi's outside the building. Another irritation is the people wandering around the departure terminal selling counterfeit watches and perfume.

I wish the airport security would let the shoeshiners back and remove these two objectionable groups of people. They annoy people and make an otherwise nice airport look very amateur.

Andrew S

What is your problem? How can you look at yourself in the mirror and not be ashamed? Or is it that those children do not earn enough money to pay your kickback? I'm sure that's what the problem is. Every other thug and lowlife Jakarta has to offer is infesting the airport and this seems to be OK.

How about arresting the taxi drivers and those helpful guides, who grab your bags and won't let go unless you pay them or punch them.

Karl Sayer

I am surprised it is now actively illegal in Indonesia to earn the next bowl of rice.

Children effectively begging is wrong, but surely their welfare and support come above their annoying the wrong person!

What about the new bridge linking Java to Madura? Why is there nothing in the Post about the problem of the nuts and bolts being removed as scrap metal by locals, putting the safety of hundreds and the tax investment of millions at risk? Just like on the railways, where trains have accidents because the rail retention bolts have been sold off for pennies as scrap?

At least the shoeshine boys do something resembling a service. If you take that away from them, without giving them the rice they need to live on, what do you think they are going to do?

Turn to the sex industry? Get involved in narcotics? Strip bridges and railway lines of bolts? Turn to burglary? Turn to radicalization and/or terrorism in despair?

Sabre

I can't believe this, Bapak Bambang. You detained children just because they shine shoes? You treat these poor, unfortunate but yet resourceful, children as criminals and put them behind bars?

I am disgusted. If you think they somehow make the airport less clean and orderly, which, from all of the comments here, has proved unjustified, think again, Pak.

Instead of imposing rigid questionable regulations, why don't you or the airport authorities provide a place, say a small stall, where these children can work and shine shoes properly and legally?

Charge the customers more if you must, I am sure people wouldn't mind. But let the children work to earn the money they so badly need to pay for school and the airport authority could also benefit from their work.

But for now, please release these children. You don't want people to start gathering support, like in Prita's case against Omni. If that's the case, you might be demoted to some remote airport, Pak. And you don't want that.

Rio Rinaldo

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