Huandra Limanau trying to get the policeman’s identity on film after he was supposedly racially abused.
There has been a spate of amateur videos scrutinizing the police in Jakarta lately. But sometimes, the stories and videos criticizing authorities that we get on social media are only partially complete at best.
Take the above video, for instance. Huandra Limanau, the man who first uploaded the footage on Facebook last week, accused the policeman in the video, Haryanto, for racism when Huandra was being fined for a traffic violation.
Apparently, though it’s not shown in the video, Haryanto called Huandra “Chinese” in a derogative manner.
The video itself has gone viral, but the original post on Huandra’s Facebook page has been taken down – and for good reason.
Huandra was at the Jakarta Police Headquarters last night to apologize to the policeman he admitted he wrongly accused of racism.
“The word ‘Chinese’ was said, but it turned out it didn’t come from Pak Haryanto, but from another car to my left. The matter is resolved, and I apologized to the police force,” Huandra said tearfully, as quoted by Vivanews yesterday.
Huandra also admitted Haryanto was right to have given him a ticket as he committed a traffic violation when he drove on the Busway lane before making a U-turn.
This story serves as a reminder that we should exercise a degree of skepticism whenever we see any story that has gone viral on social media. Sometimes, they’re so one-sided that they are plain inaccurate.
