Two Regional Council (DPRD) members from Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra, are under investigation after a video of them allegedly smoking meth surfaced online recently.
The video, which began going viral last week, shows the two men taking turns smoking what appears to be crystal meth from a bong fashioned out of a water bottle and straws. An Indonesian brand cigarette pack and an Indonesian iced tea drink are clearly visible in the video, and the jingle to a popular Indonesian news program can also be heard in the background.
“The two men in the video are DPRD members from the Padang Pariaman Regency with the initials SH and YB,” said National Narcotics Agency (BNN) spokesman Slamet Pribadi, as quoted by Merdeka yesterday.
BNN West Sumatra and the Narcotics Directorate at the West Sumatra Police are creating a special team to investigate this case.
SH was revealed to be Salman Hardini, the head of the Economics and Development fraction at the Padang Pariaman DPRD, after he admitted to be one of the men in the video. However, he denied that he was actually smoking meth in the video.
According to Salman, the video was taken when the Padang Pariaman DPRD members were undergoing training in Batam. He said all of the drug paraphernalia just appeared on a table in his hotel bedroom after he took a shower.
“I don’t know how the items got inside my room, but, because my curiosity was strong, I tried it out,” Salman said, as quoted by Merdeka yesterday.
But Salman denied that there was actually anything being smoked inside the bong. Strangely enough, he also said he doesn’t know who filmed both he and YB with the bong.
“I’m ready for a urine test and hair test to see if I took drugs or not,” he said.
Both Salman and YB are cadres of the Indonesian Political Party of Struggle (PDI-P). The party says Chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri have questioned both regarding the video, and the party may terminate their status as cadres if found guilty of drug use.
