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No protests allowed until after presidential inauguration: Jakarta Police
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An Indonesian traffic police officer on duty. (Shutterstock/-)
The Jakarta Police have decided not to issue protest permits from Oct. 15 until the presidential inauguration on Oct. 20
The decision was announced during a coordination meeting that involved the House of Representatives, the Jayakarta Military District Command (Kodam), the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the National Police.
“The policy will apply from Tuesday until Oct. 20. We will not grant any protest permits should any individual or organization file a request. This is to maintain security,” Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Gatot Eddy Purnama said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday.
The National Association of University Student Executive Bodies (BEM-SI) had planned to hold a protest on Oct. 20 if President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had yet to issue a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to revoke the new Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law.
Should the protest take place on Sunday, Kodam Jayakarta commander Maj. Gen. Eko Margiyono said it would be considered illegal.
“If there is a protest, it will be illegal. Hence, we have prepared security measures around the House complex, similar to what was prepared for the [student] protests last month. Nothing specific,” he said.
Earlier this month, the police said 27,000 security personnel from both the police and the military would be deployed to safeguard the inauguration at the House building.
National Police spokesperson Brig. Dedi Prasetyo said police were ready and that everything had been planned in accordance with their standard operating procedures.
“We have mapped out all possibilities, to prepare the appropriate measures to anticipate any events. We have briefed all personnel who will be on duty that day,” he said.
Furthermore, the Jakarta Police’s traffic unit will also deploy additional officers to implement traffic diversions with certain roads to be closed on Oct 20.
“We will double the number of officers on the roads. While we usually have 1,500 officers on duty, on Oct. 20, 3,000 will be deployed to secure the area,” Jakarta Police traffic unit chief Sr. Comr. Yusuf said on Sunday.
The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) is slated to inaugurate President Jokowi and vice president-elect Ma’ruf Amin on Oct. 20.
Previously, the pair was to be sworn in at 10 o’clock in the morning, but the plan was rescheduled to 2 p.m. on the same day.
According to Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, the inauguration was rescheduled out of respect for the public’s regular Sunday morning activities like mass at churches and car free day on Jl. Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta.
“The MPR speaker [Bambang Soesatyo] has consulted with the president-elect [Jokowi], and both agreed to move the inauguration to 2 p.m.,” Pramono said as reported by tempo.co on Monday. (vla)
