If you’re Indonesian then you’re probably familiar with the phrase “The power of emak-emak” which is jokingly used to refer to the power of mothers, or, more generally, any strong-willed middle-aged ladies, who just don’t give a shit and won’t put up with any of your shit either.
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The latest entry in our tales of #ThePowerOfEmakEmak comes from the South Kalimantan capital city of Banjarmasin. The incident took place on Thursday morning at around 11am when a 48-year-old women named Hairunnisa went with a friend to withdraw some money from the ATM of their local Bank BRI.
The women were targeted at the ATM by two men, identified by police as 23-year-old Muhammad Yani and his accomplice Hendra Suakarta, who decided to follow the women in the hopes of swiping their cash.
When Hairunnisa and her friend stopped at a parking lot on Jl Pangeran Antasari, the two men stop as well, hiding behind a black minivan to prepare their attack. What happened next can be seen in this CCTV camera footage of the incident, which has gone viral and been shared over 50,000 times.
https://www.facebook.com/arie.mursandi.31/posts/1796117037377296
Yani gets off the bike to check on the women while Hendra turns the motorcycle around to prepare their getaway. He walks up to Hairunnisa and gives her a hard shove while grabbing a black bag which police said contained IDR3.5 million (USD245) as well as many important documents.
But their attempt at a quick getaway is thwarted when the two women react with ferocious speed and grab the thieves, wrestling them and the motorcycle down to the ground. Both men attack the women in their attempts to escape but none of their blows do anything to faze the women’s resistance.
Still, things might have ended differently had their assault not been seen by members of the Satpol PP (civil service police) and dozens of other bystanders who quickly run to the scene and give chase to the criminals.
Banjarmasin Police Chief Anjar Wicaksana said the thieves, who said they committed the robbery due to desperation because they were unemployed, were lucky that the Satpol PP officers were there to keep the angry mob (and the angry emak-emaks) away from the criminals.
“The two perpetrators have now been submitted to the Banjarmasin Police to undergo the applicable legal processes,” Anjar told South Kalimantan news portal Kalsel.Prokal.co
This incident will hopefully cause criminals to think before making the mistake of assuming an emak would make an easy target.
