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Jakarta police slammed for standing idle amid hard-liner raid

Jakarta Globe - December 30, 2015

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Jakarta – Central Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Hendro Pandowo has received widespread criticism on social media for allowing hard-line Muslim groups to harass participants of an award show on Monday evening.

Local media reported that hundreds of members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), the Islamic Defenders' Troops (LPI) and the Islamic People's Forum (FUI) searched all cars entering the Taman Ismail Marzuki cultural center in search of Dedi Mulyadi, the district head of Purwakarta, West Java, who was supposed to receive an award for his achievements in promoting Sundanese tradition and culture.

Organizers said Dedi decided not to attend the award ceremony because of security concerns.

Tensions between hard-line Muslim groups and the Sundanese community who hail mostly from West Java have been fraught since November, when FPI chairman Rizieq Shihab used a sermon in Purwakarta to slam Dedi's campaign to encourage residents to use the Sundanese greeting "Sampurasun."

Members of the Purwakarta People's Alliance, or AMP, had threatened to block the FPI from the district, prompting hard-line Muslim groups in Jakarta to launch a similar move against Dedi.

The hard-liners' actions quickly kicked up a frenzy on social media with many pointing to the fact that the hundreds of police officers deployed to guard the venue just stood and watched.

Hendro of the Central Jakarta Police told CNN Indonesia on Tuesday that his office had deployed 200 officers "to prevent [any] undesired situation."

Hendro defended his stance, of permitting the hard-liners to conduct checks on the award show participants, saying that the hard-liners "were only checking [the cars for signs of Dedi]. Their demand was simply for Dedi to not attend the ceremony and I have checked [the venue] and confirmed that he wasn't."

The argument only inflamed the social media outrage against the police chief.

Hard-liners "are not the police, not security guards, just regular people. Who do they think they are? So many police officers [were] present and they just stood and watched. So much for 'protect and serve,'" one Twitter user wrote.

Another tweeted "The police chief has the power to deploy 200 officers but not the guts to stop a group of people violating other people's privacy without authority nor fear of repercussions in the capital of the state no less."

A petition on Change.org calling for Hendro's ouster went from 4,680 signatures at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to 6,105 signatures just 30 minutes later.

"Myself and many others condemn the actions of the FPI. They do not represent Jakarta or any religion. They are just a small group bent on creating violence and fear. My question: where are the police?" the petition's initiator, Damar Juniarto, wrote on the website.

"There were hundreds of police officers at the venue but instead they asked organizers to stop the event and refused to guarantee [Dedi's] safety. Then why were those hundreds of officers there?"

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/jakarta-police-slammed-standing-idle-amid-hard-liner-raid/.