In the wake of a national outcry over a civil service police raid on an elderly woman’s warung in Banten, in which the police confiscated her food because her restaurant had been open for lunch during Ramadan, national government officials are responding by saying that such raids are illegal and the regional leaders who order them could lose their jobs over them.
Ombudsman Commissioner Ahmad Alamsyah Saragih said there were actually a number of laws in place that prevented regional leaders, such as Serang Mayor Tubagus Haerul Jaman, from being able to order such raids.
“The penalties range from written reprimands to dismissal,” Alamsyah said on Monday as quoted by Tempo.
The ombudsman said such raids violate the 2014 Law on Regional Governments that forbids policies that harm the interests of the public or discriminate against citizens and/or other vulnerable groups.
The civil service police in Serang said they were merely enforcing a city bylaw from 2010 prohibiting warungs from being open during the day during Ramadan. The mayor of Serang, Haerul Jaman, defended the raid but said the police performed a “procedural error” when they confiscated the warung’s food and threatened to sanction Serang Municipal Police Chief Maman Lutfi.
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