The city administration said that its public order officers had resumed normal duties Wednesday following a rest period after last week’s deadly clash in Koja, North Jakarta.
However, there was little evidence of their activity in the capital on their first day back on the job, in large part because many were working incognito.
Public Order Agency vans and trucks that usually sit parked at busy intersections and markets, such as in Slipi and Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, and Jatinegara, in East Jakarta, were nowhere to be seen.
Scores of 3-in-1 jockeys lined Jl. Asia-Afrika in Senayan unchallenged as they waited to be picked up and paid by cars in need of extra passengers to comply with the rush-hour 3-in-1 car-pooling regulation.
Head of the Public Order Agency protection unit, Heru Joko Santoso, said his men were still traumatized by last week’s violence.
“Yes, we resumed working and doing our duty, but we have yet to become fully operational as many of our members continue to suffer from mental trauma,” Heru said.
Three people died when hundreds of public order officers clashed with defenders of a sacred monument in Koja during a land-clearing operation, all from the agency.
The latest release from the Indonesian Red Cross on Tuesday said that 173 people were injured in the fight, 90 of them public order officers.
Heru tried to lift the morale of his officers at a morning ceremony at the National Monument Park by reminding them they were protected by law and state.
“Now let us rise and shine again. The sweep is just a rumor. Do not be afraid,” Heru said to his officers in the park, referring to a rumor that members of the Islam Defenders’ Front (FPI) and the Betawi Brotherhood Forum were planning attacks against the officers as revenge for the Koja violence.
Heru said that the officers had requested that they not have to wear their blue-brown uniforms, but he added that he had been assured by FPI Jakarta chief Salim bin Umar Alatas that the FPI would not target agency officers.
In North Jakarta, officers took advantage of Kartini Day celebrations to relinquish their uniforms in favor of traditional Betawi clothes.
“Today, we did not hold a morning ceremony. Instead, we held a spiritual session during which we asked an ulema to help heal the officers of their trauma,” North Jakarta Mayor Bambang Sugiyono told The Jakarta Post via text message.
In Central Jakarta, officers wore their normal blue uniforms, but were dispatched to the streets.
“Today, our group commander only assigned us to monitor the National Monument park because the number of illegal vendors has been increasing,” said one officer, Roni.
South Jakarta Mayor Syahrul Effendi said he had delayed scheduled evictions until the officers had recovered.
Syahrul was quoted by kompas.com as saying that one foreign embassy had planned for the agency to clear a plot of land for it, but that the operation had been delayed.
