Veronika Kusuma Wijayanti, Jakarta – Civil servants and journalists posted at the national police headquarters have been forced to enter via the back of the building. The reason being that the entrance that is usually used for police, staff or journalists entering on foot has been damaged.

Police headquarters actually has a number of entrances. There is a special entrance for national police vehicles. There is an entrance for other police vehicles. There is an entrance for police headquarters staff. And one entrance – located in the back section of the police headquarters complex – is provided for the general public.

Usually, journalists enter the building through the door provided for police headquarters staff. Specifically for staff members, they can enter after placing their card against a red coloured sensor unit. If the sensor okays them the door will then open. Staff then casually go to their offices.

Journalists of course, do not have a staff card that is sensor friendly. They usually ask the officer on guard to open the door with the card held by the officer. Journalists like to enter via this door because it is close to the Criminal Investigation Bureau Building that is reporter friendly.

But on Wednesday November 2, their favorite door was chained and padlocked and they were forced to enter via the back door after walking around to the rear of the police headquarters building.

Why was the door padlocked? The answer, the sensor is broken. “The cable has been gnawed on by rats”, said the officer on guard. The rats were a “memento” from the Anti-Corruption Alliance (ATK) who demonstrated at police headquarters last Monday.

ATK is a group of 10 students who brought 15 rats in a white cage, attached to which were the names of scores of high-ranking national police headquarters officers who are suspected of corruption. They are Saleh Saaf, Firman Gani, Budi G, Edi Garnadi, Dedy SK, Iwan Panji, Cuk Sugiarto, Makbul Padmanegara, Adang Dorojatun, Suyitno Landung, Heru S and Matheus Salempang.

Now, during the action, the “corrupt” rats were tossed into the building. Squeak, squeak, squeak… the rodents ran in inside. The impact is only now being felt: they ate the sensor’s cable. “We didn’t get around to removing the rats. The thing was they had already ran into holes”, a police headquarters officer told Detik.com.

Out of all the doors fitted with sensors, only this one fell victim to the mischievous rats. It is still unknown when the door will be operating normally again. (nrl)

[Translated by James Balowski.]