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Plan for TNI, police deployment draws criticism

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2015

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Jakarta – Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama's plan to hire military and police personnel to maintain security and public order in the city has drawn strong criticism from the public.

The city is this year set to cooperate with the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police (Polri) to uphold the 5 Tertib Jakarta (5 Orderly Jakarta) program to govern Jakarta and its millions of residents.

The 5TJ consists of tertib pedagang kaki lima (orderly street vendors), tertib hunian (orderly residences), tertib buang sampah (orderly waste disposal), tertib berlalu lintas (orderly traffic) and tertib berdemo (orderly demonstrations).

TB Hasanuddin, a member of the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs and a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that the plan was bothersome for the TNI. "TNI officers trained hard to defend the country," Hasanuddin said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

The governor has issued Gubernatorial Regulation No. 138/2015 on hiring TNI and police personnel to maintain public order in Jakarta. The regulation stipulates that the city will deploy TNI and Polri officers for activities in which the city administration would need a helping hand from such officers. The kinds of activities were not described in the regulation.

Each officer would receive a total of Rp 283,000 (US$22) per day from the city administration – Rp 250,000 for their work and a Rp 38,000 meal allowance.

Many members of the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) have expressed their objection to the governor's plan to recruit military and police personnel to uphold security and public order in the city because it would take over from their daily roles.

Ahok said that the plan was part of a larger cooperation between the city administration, the TNI and the police, and that the city had "no intention of harassing the two institutions". (tya)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/21/plan-tni-police-deployment-draws-criticism.html.