Viral footage of holidaymakers frolicking in a pool at the waterpark over the weekend has caused public uproar, with the video showing dozens of swimwear-clad people neglecting physical distancing.

Bekasi Regency Police chief Sr. Comr. Hendra Gunawan said that crowds of people had gathered at the park on Saturday because the waterpark management had promoted a huge holiday discount on entrance tickets.

“They offered a discount of around 90 percent from Rp 95,000 (US$6.72) [per person], which made the ticket price that day just Rp 10,000,” Hendra said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

“There were about 2,355 visitors that day [Saturday] based on ticket sales, whether sold online or at the waterpark’s ticket counters,” he added.

The police discovered that the park management had distributed an electronic ad on the promotional discount via WhatsApp from Jan. 6 to 9. The ad also appeared briefly on WaterBoom Lippo Cikarang’s Instagram account, @waterboomlippocikarang_, which was set up as a private account.

The landing page on the waterpark’s website -- waterboomlippocikarang.com -- currently displays a popup notification saying that the park is “temporarily closed from 11 January 2021 [sic] until further notice”.

Police have questioned 15 people in relation to incident, including two police officers, an official at the Bekasi Regency Tourism Agency and another at the Bekasi Regency Health Agency.

“The rest [of the witnesses] were part of the [park’s] management, from the general manager to the marketing manager, as well as employees at the ticket counters, security and lifeguard staff and other employees working that day,” said Hendra.

Bekasi Regency Police also confiscated evidence from the waterpark, such as ticket stubs and CCTV footage, on the alleged health protocol violations that were committed during the crowd-drawing event.

Although police were yet to name any suspects, Hendra alleged that WaterBoom management had violated articles 9 and 93 of Law No. 6/2018 on health quarantine, as well as articles 212, 216 and 218 of the Criminal Code.

“According to the Health Quarantine Law, the maximum sentence [for drawing crowds during a public health emergency] is one year [in prison] and a Rp 100 million fine,” he said.

Hendra added the Bekasi Police had obtained statements from the WaterBoom management that they wanted to offset a recent decline in visitors to the park: “Their motive was to increase visitor [numbers]. The place was empty, as WaterBoom Lippo Cikarang was seeing only around 200 to 500 visitors [per day].”

According to online booking platform Traveloka, the waterpark “can accommodate up to seven thousand visitors” and “five hundred four-wheeled vehicles”.

Hendra also confirmed the dismissal of South Cikarang Police chief Comr. Sukadi on Tuesday “as a consequence” of his failure to prevent the crowd-drawing event at the park that “has caused or has the potential” to cause COVID-19 transmission.

Sukadi has been replaced with Comr. Sutrisno, from the Jakarta Police’s public relations division.

The incident at WaterBoom Lippo Cikarang has drawn the ire of West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, who condemned the park for attempting to increase visitor numbers instead of limiting them amid the current restrictions.

He added that the waterpark had been closed by the order of the West Java provincial administration.

“We have sanctioned it by closing it. We hope that this strict action by Forkopimda and the local COVID-19 task force will be a lesson for business owners to comply [with the health protocols],” the governor said on Monday as quoted by kompas.com, implying that the sanction was a collective decision of the Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkopimda). (ami)