Nasty Balinese Police Methods 6 – Complaints Procedures

Nasty Balinese Police Methods 6 – Complaints Procedures
By Tri Kuncoro Jnr & Jack Daniels
Mar 10, 2006, 07:24

We have been made aware of multiple cases where the police in Bali and no doubt Indonesia as a whole can “legally” decide whether they investigate a criminal matter or not, according to their corrupt needs. That is, the criminal code states that anyone wishing to bring a crime to the Balinese / Indonesian police’s attention for them to investigate must do so in person at the complaints desk of the police station which covers the geographical area in which the alleged crime took place. On the other hand, the police state they have a sworn duty to investigate any possible crime which they become aware of. These two conflicting laws / duties are thereby routinely abused by the corrupt mafia police of Bali to deny justice and ignore crimes when it suits them.

For example, we have been made aware of a robbery of a guests’ money and valuables in a 5 star hotel in Nose Dual said to be majoritively owned by one of the Suharto family. The foreign visitor had reason to be sure the theft was conducted by hotel staff or accomplices of staff because of how their room door was not forced open, how the thieves were able to open the room safe, and how the thieves seemed to know that the guests would not be back for some time as they were booked into the hotel spa! The police were called and “investigated” the theft, but when the guest was returning home and therefore could not pursue the matter in Bali he was told the police did and could not investigate because he did not make a police complaint properly! You see, the law, when it suits the police says he had to go to the police station to make a formal complaint for there to be an investigation. The fact the police were called and did not advise this to the foreign visitor was tough luck!

You can read about poor Mr. John Le Fevre who claims to have been unlawfully imprisoned by local Indonesian Immigration Officers who were colluding with his business partner to steal everything he owned in our latest “Bali BS Email” article. Here Mr. Le Fevre states he was denied his right to make a police complaint while in so called custody (despite the fact he was subsequently released), then had an unlawful deportation order rapidly forced through and has now been told the police can not investigate the alleged robbery of all his money and belongings by his former Balinese business partner as he is unable to make a complaint at the proper police complaints desk! That’s right, Indonesian law does not allow you to file a police complaint overseas at one of their embassies nor do they allow properly authorized Indonesian lawyers to do this for you either; they can do everything else include sue people on your behalf, but not make police complaints for you! So if you are under threat of being a victim of police corruption and had to flee Indonesia such as poor Harry Bleckert of Bali SOS had to (see Indonesian Judicial Corruption), you can not instigate an investigation into that crime unless you go back to Bali and put yourself at risk from the very people you need to complain about.

However of course, in other cases when it does suit Bali’s corrupt police to investigate, they say they do not need a complaint made at the police station complaint’s desk as they have a legal duty through sworn oath to investigate any criminal activity they become aware of! This is actually stated by a senior (department head) Balinese police officer in writing and demonstrated time and time again in investigation files which reveal no “official” complaint was registered but where something was simply made “aware” to a police officer. For example, when the police unlawfully closed down poor Harry Bleckert’s Bali WiFi business the police report states the whole investigation started as a consequence of a police officer from Bali’s so called cyber crime squad (who are so dumb they thought Internet web sites could only be viewed at the location of the business who owns that web site) allegedly noticing Harry’s satellite dish, allegedly believing it was illegal (it was not and is the same dish used by numerous telecoms companies in Indonesia) and then decided to investigate!

Nasty travel agent Jack Daniels used the same duplicity to start trouble out of revenge for his nemesis Mark Austin, after Mark reportedly caught naughty Jack and his cohorts at Bali Discovery Tours cheating on the Internet. Seems that during a chance meeting with the then Polda police chief Budi Setywan, Jack told Budi of how Mark was calling Bali’s police “corrupt” and his words also could be interpreted as Mark being a spy for terrorists! A joke that would not even be material for a comic book, but Bali’s equally nasty and idiotic police chief then decided to “investigate” Mark unlawfully (without reference to any criminal code, outside Balinese police jurisdiction and by seizing Mark’s passport without charge). Of course the fact that Jack Daniels not only told Budi Setywan about Mark’s comments and also provided the ugly police chief with written details of when Mark was due next to arrive in Bali, down to the day and airline, plus printed up a copy of what Mark said in English with a mistranslation into English; a false and nasty complaint by whatever name if ever there was one.

Because the police divulged the complainant and Mark published the fact it was J M Daniels who made it, Jack Daniels then went on to illustrate how one sided, nasty and abused Indonesian law is by claiming Mark’s published name and shame was libelous on the basis he (Daniels) had not made an official complaint; although Jack Daniels in typical form wobbled out a different story! So then Jack went and made a second police complaint, albeit he claims his first (official) complaint against Mark for criminal libel! It does not take some bent cop’s rubber stamp on what you did to make it a complaint or not Jack, you horrible little travel agent. What a joke, but a very sick one and which shows why foreigners without corrupt links or desire should never risk visiting let alone investing in Bali. Because if someone who has reason to fear or envy you, they can make an unofficial complaint about a fabricated “crime” against you with absolute impunity while the police ignore real complaints for real crimes.

The problem also therefore for every foreigner who is thinking about visiting Bali / Indonesia is that they go knowing they have no police protection there, in fact the reverse. Unlike other countries where gangs and local mafia are the risk, the mafia gang in Bali is the Balinese police authority itself. And it is not just the fact that the police will extort money from you if they can or even close your business down and put you in jail if someone more “connected” to them “asks” (pays) them to; it is also clear they have no intention or ability to protect you against real crime. That is also why the terrorists can explode bombs in the tourist areas of Bali whenever they chose, because the police are too often too busy out to make a dishonest buck to care about the public’s safety.