TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsLegislator allegedly slaps customs officer
A member of the House of Representatives from South Sulawesi, Andi Taufan Tiro, allegedly slapped an unidentified customs officer after complaining about waiting too long at a luggage check on Wednesday evening
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A
member of the House of Representatives from South Sulawesi, Andi Taufan Tiro, allegedly slapped an unidentified customs officer after complaining about waiting too long at a luggage check on Wednesday evening.
The report circulated among users of microblogging site Twitter, following posts made by someone claiming to be a customs officer who witnessed the incident. The report was also broadcast widely on the BlackBerry Messenger service.
The owner of Twitter account, Irfan Nur Ilman, who claims to be a customs officer, posted, “At the arrival hall of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, one of our ‘respected’ House members boldly slapped our customs officer colleague in the face and yelled at the officer that he was a House member.”
Irfan claimed that the officer was identified later as Rajindra.
According to Irfan, a group of House members arrived on flight GA885 at the airport at 7:10 p.m. from Japan. As only a few customs officers were on duty, they only opened one X-ray check line, resulting in a long queue of passengers.
Soon back-up personnel came and they divided the line in two.
“He [Taufan] questioned why the officers took so long to open two lines in the first place,” Irfan said.
He added that one officer tried to explain but the explanation only angered the lawmaker, who yelled at the officer and slapped him in the face.
Taufan denied the report, saying that he did not slap the officer, but he confirmed that he pushed one of the officers.
“None of the reports are true,” Taufan said on Thursday, recounting his version of the story.
Taufan, a member of House Commission V overseeing transportation, said that many passengers had complained of long queues at the luggage X-ray check.
According to Taufan, the officers only opened one line out of three counters available.
“It took a very long time. After an hour, the line was still long,” Taufan said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.
Upon seeing that, Taufan shouted to the officers to open a new line, and when the new line was opened, he rushed to the counter.
