Following the recent release of dramatic video showing undercover police in West Jakarta busting a group of preman (thugs) who were dressed as security guards and extorting local businesses for “protection money”, another video purporting to show security guards engaging in premanisme at a shopping center in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, went viral in the last few days. The market’s management denied the allegation yesterday.
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The incident in the video, which was confirmed to have taken place at Tanah Abang’s Blok B shopping center on Friday at about 11:30 am, shows four security guards in a heated conversation with the owner of one of the market’s kiosks. Some of the audio is hard to hear but the stall owner can clearly be heard asking about “sewa lahan” (land rent) and questioning why he should have to pay more.
The Tanah Abang commercial district has a reputation for being controlled by preman (one of the reasons the district is perpetually congested is due to street-side vendors illegally sanctioned by preman security). But in this case, the police and Blok B’s management insist that the viral video did not show the whole story and there was no extortion taking place.
According to the market’s management, the security officers shown in the video were speaking to the stall’s owner, Tanto, because he had goods outside of the area permitted by his lease.
“Security members found the shop owner had put goods and displayed clothes until they jutted out of the store area and exceeded the limit set by management,” Tanah Abang Police Chief Lukman Cahyono said in a statement to Kompas yesterday.
Lukman said that a mediation took place between Tanto, the security officers and management and the shop owner had agreed to be mindful of the space restrictions on his lease while the security guards promised to take a softer tone when reminding tenants about the rules.
