The boss comes after God.
That’s the impression The Jakarta Post got when interviewing Public Order Officers known as Satpol PP after the bloody riot in Koja, North Jakarta, which killed three officers and injured nearly 200 people two weeks ago.
The Post met nine officers in a subdistrict office in Central Jakarta to hear their side of story and found that “we just follow instructions from the top” was the most frequent answer they gave during the interview.
The unit commander decides what the officers do, said Soni, one of the interviewed officers, who all refused to give their real names.
“We have morning meetings where the commander will give us instructions for the day,” Soni said.
Most of the jobs are related to evictions or land clearings that mostly target street vendors, slum dwellers and beggars.
Beside those jobs, the officers have a list of assignments including helping to manage traffic when accidents occur, clearing streets of garbage or illegal posters and helping people during floods or fires.
Unfortunately, it is the bosses who decide.
Despite this blind top-to-bottom hierarchy, the officers are not as stupid as the public thinks.
They join the force after beating thousands of applicants and passing a series of tests.
“We passed all kind of tests without bribes. The tests included IQ tests, so it’s not true what people say about us having no brains,” Iwan, 24, an officer who is a university graduate, said.
Like Iwan, many officers have higher education backgrounds or are in the process of securing university degrees. The prime example among this group was Ahmad, 28, who is enrolling at a private university and will major in Social and Political sciences.
Commenting on the recent incident, Ahmad, the father of a three-year-old boy, believed a third party provoked the crowd into becoming violent against the officers.
The local residents were angered by a decision by the Jakarta administration to dismantle the tomb of prominent Muslim figure, Arif Billah Hasan bin Muhammad Al Haddad, known as Mbah Priuk Adi, another officer who was present at the incident, claimed the first stone was thrown by the residents.
“When we arrived, an armed group of residents was already waiting for us, while we only had our rubber batons,” he said.
Adi’s statement may be in a stark contrast with what people usually see on television, public order officers becoming violent when carrying out their duties.
However, Adi and his friends ask people not to generalize, as some officers prefer to do their job with a measure of control on fears they will lose their position if they get violent.
Based on a regulation, it is prohibited for officers to become violent, for which the heaviest penalty is
being fired.
“But for me, I’d rather negotiate with residents rather than beating them because we are dealing with our fellows,” Soni, who has been part of the force for more than 10 years and had suffered numerous injuries in apparently unprovoked public attacks.
“I don’t know why the public hates us so much. Every news report shows us in a bad light. We can’t do anything. May Allah punish them,” he said.
After the Priok incident, these officers admit they have become closer to God, with many of them praying regularly, knowing their bosses are also having difficult time.
