Four traffic police officers in Solo, Central Java were recently given the difficult choice of deciding which to prioritize: an ambulance carrying a sick patient or President Joko Widodo’s motorcade.
Luckily, they chose wisely.
On Saturday evening, the officers were tasked with directing traffic at a crowded three-way junction in anticipation of the president’s motorcade passing through. However, just as Jokowi’s car was arriving at the junction, an ambulance coming from another way got stuck among the cars.
Considering how little regard some Indonesians have for ambulances, and how politicians are often able to easily force their way through traffic jams using police escorts, one might have expected the police officers in Solo to give way to Jokowi’s motorcade first. Instead, they have won praise for actually stopping Jokowi’s car and prioritizing the ambulance.
“I gave way to the ambulance for humanitarian reasons,” one of the officers, Ipda Suharto, told the media today, as quoted by Merdeka.
Suharto added that he and the three other officers — Aipda Ersan, Bripka Dwi Purnomo and Briptu Javan Bagas — were given the go-ahead from Jokowi’s Paspampres (presidential security detail) to prioritize the ambulance over them. The four officers were given awards for their humanitarian act during a ceremony at Solo Police headquarters this morning.
Jokowi, who was in Solo over the weekend to visit his grandson, has not commented on the incident. But we imagine he’d be proud of the officers since he’s among those Indonesian politicians who doesn’t like to abuse his status to beat traffic jams.
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