By: Dodik Prasetyo) *
Last May 22, 2019, the Police managed to secure the intersection around the Bawaslu Building located on Jl MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta. At 10:10 p.m., the masses who had originally carried out an anarchist act were successfully repelled by security forces.
The police managed to surround from various angles, starting from the direction of the horse statue, then Jalan Wahid Hasyim, so the mob ran to Jalan Sabang.
In this security, the police succeeded in arresting a provocateur who carried out anarchic acts. The person was then successfully secured into the Bawaslu building.
But the masses who still survived on Jalan Sabang, apparently not satisfied to give resistance to the police, they still pelted officers with Molotov cocktails. So the tense atmosphere is still felt in the Bawaslu Building area.
The riots were spread in three points. The first point is in the area of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), the other area is the Petamburan area which affects up to Slipover Flyover and the Tanah Abang area, then the Sabang region, Central Jakarta.
The Office of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) was the main target of the action masses, who claimed that the action was caused by not accepting the results of the vote count recapitulation conducted by the KPU which had officially announced a victory for Jokowi – Ma’ruf Amin as President and Vice President.
In the riots, a mass of actions that were originally in the Thamrin area, then acted anarchically and set fire to a shop located at the crossroad. The crowd continued to fight tear gas fired by police by throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the Brimob who made barricades.
Ironically, the riots that occurred at the Bawaslu Office turned out to involve a number of children under the age of 17.
So far, the Metro Jaya Regional Police have succeeded in arresting 257 people involved in the riots that occurred during 21-22 May 2019. The Head of Public Relations of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police stated that 72 suspects were arrested while taking action in Bawaslu. While 156 suspects were arrested while taking action in Petambunan, Central Jakarta, and 29 other suspects in action in the Gambir region.
The suspect who was secured by the Metro Jaya Regional Police was apparently not a citizen of Jakarta, but came from outside Jakarta who arrived at the Sunda Kelapa Mosque to plan riots in a demonstration against the results of the 2019 election.
Police officers also managed to secure a man wearing a veil or face covering in front of the Bawaslu office. The arrest was carried out at around 3:30 a.m. WIB. A number of items of evidence were also secured, such as scissors, books, glasses, clothes and skullcaps. The items are then stored in a bag hidden behind clothes.
When the arrest took place, the police still clashed with the mass around the Tanah Abang market, until the police were forced to fire tear gas.
Because it was late at night and had exceeded the limits of submission of opinion, the authorities then tried to disperse the crowd. This is in accordance with the SOP, that there should be no mass action until late at night. But they were determined to pelt officers with stones and Molotov cocktails.
Around 2:45 a.m., the officers had managed to break up the masses, but at 3:00 a.m. WIB, another mob arrived from the direction of Jl KS Tubun and numbered around 200 people.
The mob was forced to be repelled by security forces. At that time they instead carried out damage around the Brimob dormitory area. As a result a number of parked cars were damaged and burned by Massa.
After decisive action, the police finally managed to secure 11 people from the riots that occurred on Jl KS Tubun, while the police also found envelopes containing money and ambulances filled with stones. The police suspect that the riots occurred in a planned manner.
We certainly deserve to appreciate the police’s security measures in securing the situation, besides that the community is also urged not to be easily provoked by calls for movements that are not in accordance with the constitutional path.
Elections are a means to realize and advance the life of the nation and the state, not necessarily to create a deterioration in the life of the state. Therefore, demonstrations that cause chaos and damage are actually actions that are contrary to the goals of democracy.
) * The author is a sociopolitical observer
