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span class="inline inline-center">Divine help: Gardener I Nyoman Minta (center) prays during a ritual at his home led by Hindu priest Jero Mangku Suweta (right) on Friday. They asked for divine help for Minta to overcome all the trauma resulting from police questioning after he unintentionally breached a security cordon when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened an ASEAN fair in Nusa Dua, Bali, last week. Two men who breached presidential security in Denpasar, Bali, and Bandung, West Java, recently have been left traumatized.

Nyoman Minta’s ordeal compelled his family to organize a special ritual in front of his house in Mumbul, Nusa Dua, Bali.

Hindu priest Jero Mangku Suweta led the ritual for the family of Minta, a gardener who unintentionally breached the security cordon around President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the middle of the opening ceremony of ASEAN Fair last Monday. The incident was a public embarrassment for the Presidential Security Force (Paspampres).

The gardener’s family organized a special pengulapan ritual to cure his trauma following his detention and interrogation in the hands of state apparatus.

At the time of the incident, security officers became aware that Minta had breached security only when the gardener was five meters from the President, a no-mans land for the public.

With his old mountain bike beside him and carrying a sack of corn leaves and coconut, Minta was abruptly removed from the location.

He then under went interrogation and a reenactment for more than 10 hours. Minta, who works with the Bali Tourism Development Corporation (BTDC) and usually cleans the Nusa Dua Beach area, was released only after it was proven that breached security unintentionally.

He was also asked to sign a declaration, which his wife signed because he is illiterate.

“My father seemed to be in shock after he came home from the police office. I have never seen him like that. That’s why we decided to hold this ngulapin ceremony,” said Ni Wayan Karmi, Minta’s oldest child.

In Bandung, a university student who breached the security cordon during the Youth Pledge commemoration on Friday was reportedly depressed after he was freed on Saturday.

During a ceremony at the Siliwangi Stadium, Ikbal Sabarudin, a 21-year-old student at the State Islamic University, charged toward the stage brandishing a poster in front of Vice President Boediono that expressed contempt for the government.

“He will have to report to the police on Monday,” Islamic Union Students Association head Mohammad Reza Ansori said in Bandung on Saturday.

The association collected Ikbal from the police office at 10 a.m.

Ikbal was arrested and questioned at the Bandung Police headquarters. A point of criticism on the poster was about his dissatisfaction with the administration’s performance more than 80 years after the original Youth Pledge on Oct. 28, 1928.

“Cursed Pledge”, the poster read. He also cursed embezzlers and government officials, whom he said reneged on their commitments, as well as the President and Vice President, whom he deemed to have failed in ensuring the welfare of the people.

“He has been charged with defamation on the grounds that the poster refers to the President and Vice President,” Reza said.

When apprehended by security officers, Ikbal was kicked, trampled and beaten. Reza said Ikbal complained about pain in his back and hip.

“He is psychologically depressed. He communicated little. He has stitches for a minor injury to his head. His face and eyes were bruised, maybe due to physical punishment,” Reza said.

Reza refused to disclose Ikbal’s whereabouts. “He is still depressed and needs rest. I’ll inform you when the time comes. He is resting with a senior,” he said.