With fears that tomorrow’s protest against Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama will turn violent (possibly due to the involvement of ISIS supporters) the police are on high alert and plan on deploying some 18,000 officers to help secure the rally, which its organizers claim could involve as many as 200,000 protesters.
Although they will also be supported by the army, the police say they will be employing special “persuasive” tactics to help keep the protests peaceful, including 300 policewomen wearing jilbabs (headscarves) who will be standing at the frontlines at the event.
“Policewomen will be included in the initial frontline team as negotiators. We expect the presence of policewoman to calm the protestors’ emotions,” said Police Public Relations Head Awi Setiyono at Police Headquarters on Wednesday as quoted by Wartakota.
Awi said the policewomen would bring the protesters sweets and drinks and try to de-escalate tensions by having heart-to-heart dialogues with protesters.
It’s an incredibly dangerous task that the police have given to these brave women (especially considering Jakarta Police Chief Mochamad Iriawan just last week made a sexist joke about how if his officers aren’t willing to shoot criminals on sight they should be forced to wear skirts).
In addition to the policewomen in headscarves, Awi said there would also be about 500 policemen from the elite Mobile Brigade (Brimbob) division wearing Islamic turbans and peci hats securing the crowd. He said that if the protesters started to get violent, they would read the Asmaul Husna (Beautiful names praising God) to calm them down.
In addition to the police’s attempts to persuade the protesters to remain calm, the head of protocol at Istiqlal Mosque, which most of the protesters will be going to for Friday prayers immediately before the rally, said that the imam’s sermon would attempt to cool the protesters anger and prevent the rally from descending into anarchy.
These attempts to de-escalate tensions and the potential for violence in tomorrow’s rally are admirable, but we can hope that they will be enough.
