T

he Indonesian Military (TNI) must be transparent in dealing with the case of Capt. A, the so-called “Palmerah Cowboy” who threatened a motorist with an airsoft gun and fired twice into the air during a minor scuffle on Monday, a member of the nation’s human rights body says.

“The issue here is not whether the soldier was brandishing a real firearm or an airsoft gun,” National Commission on Human Rights deputy chairman, Ridha Saleh, told The Jakarta Post over the telephone on Tuesday.

“The issue is that he misused the weapon to intimidate a civilian, something that a soldier must not do under any circumstance,” he said. “It is completely unethical.”

According to Ridha, the military will only harm their image if they do not act swiftly on the case.

Military expert Mufti Makarim shared Ridha’s concerns, saying, “I believe the general public hopes the military will be transparent and mete out [to the soldier] a punishment that serves as a deterrent to all armed forces to not commit similar acts in the future.”

According to him, the military needs the political will to provide open access to information for any member of the public who wants to know how they deal with cases like these.

“Everyone knows that the military has such a high esprit de corps that they often misuse their position. So far, no military court has ever handed out a strong-enough punishment, which has resulted in soldiers thinking they can get away with anything,” Mufti said.

News of the trigger-happy soldier first surfaced online after a two-minute video, depicting an armed-man hitting a civilian at a bus stop on Jl. Tentara Pelajar in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, started circulating on YouTube earlier this week.

The video has sparked renewed criticism against the military following recent reports that four soldiers were involved in gang violence that killed two civilians.

The Navy announced on Wednesday that it had imposed sanctions on eight military personnel who joined a convoy of motorcyclists who committed vigilante acts across the city last month.

“Disciplinary sanctions will be imposed on them. They will be detained for at least two weeks,” Navy chief admiral Soeparno said as quoted by kompas.com.

In the video, which is entitled Koboy Palmerah (Palmerah Cowboy), a man wearing a white shirt is seen hitting a motorcyclist, who was wearing a blue T-shirt and a helmet.

After striking the motorcyclist several times, the man brandished his pistol and fired twice into the air.

The Army confirmed on Tuesday that the armed man was a soldier, and called him Capt. A. He is reportedly the head of personnel at Army headquarters on Jl. Veteran in Central Jakarta.

Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Pandji Suko Hari Judho said that Capt. A had been detained by Jakarta Military Police for questioning. “We deeply regret how both [Capt. A and the motorcyclist] behaved emotionally during the incident.”

The Army had revealed that the gun brandished by Capt. A had turned out to be an airsoft gun. According to Pandji, the incident began when a Toyota Avanza with the military license plate 1349-00 hit the civilian motorcyclist, identified as SSP.

“The motorcyclist asked the car to stop and requested the driver, who turned out to be a soldier, to step outside,” he said.

Afterwards, a minor scuffle occurred between Capt. A and SSP, during which Capt. A hit SSP several times and fired the shots into the air.

A team of patrolling military police arrived at the scene shortly afterward and immediately apprehended Capt. A. SSP reportedly refused to be apprehended and so the military police confiscated his driver’s license and registration.

Pandji said the military had yet to decide what punishment would be handed down to Capt. A. “The military police will decide the punishment for Capt. A, be it a disciplinary sanction or a criminal charge,” he said, adding that Capt. A would be handed over to a military court if he was charged with committing a criminal offense.