Bali Police Turn Sights on Dutch Reporter

Jakarta Globe, Farouk Arnaz, April 10, 2013

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The Bali Police officer caught on video soliciting a Rp 200,000 ($21) bribe has not yet been punished, while the Dutch national who recorded the transaction could face criminal charges, police said on Tuesday.

Sr. Comr. Hariadi, a spokesman for the Bali Police, told the Jakarta Globe that the officer in question, Second Insp. Komang Sarjana from the Badung district police, was still being investigated by the police’s internal affairs division.

“He is being investigated for disciplinary violations. Nothing’s final yet because the probe is still underway,” Hariadi said.

Sarjana shot to infamy after a video was uploaded to YouTube last week that showed him stopping Kees van der Spek, a journalist for the Dutch TV channel SBS6, for riding a motorcycle without a helmet.

The video, which as of Tuesday evening had garnered 1.26 million views and which van der Spek was filming for a series on scams faced by Dutch tourists abroad, showed Sarjana offering to “fine” the Dutchman Rp 200,000 in lieu of issuing him a ticket that would have required him to go to court and pay a bigger fine.

He later bought beers with some of the money, which he and another officer were seen drinking with van der Spek, and also boasted of having taken Rp 400,000 from two other tourists earlier in the day.

While Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika, himself a former chief of the provincial police, has lauded van der Spek’s video as shining a light on “our ugly side,” the current police chief, Insp. Gen. Arif Wachyunandi, has taken a different view.

Arif said the video was clear evidence that van der Spek had bribed a law enforcement officer, for which he should face criminal charges.

“Both the recipient and the person who gives a bribe must be punished according to prevailing laws,” he said on Monday.

“The legal process [against van der Spek] is already underway.”

Another video by van der Spek was uploaded to YouTube last Thursday in which one of the men from the journalist’s team was shown handing $200 to a customs officer at Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai International Airport to allow the crew to bring their camera equipment into the country despite not having a filming permit.

Customs officials have confirmed the incident and launched a probe. Other videos in the collection “Safety tips for tourist when visiting Bali Paradise Island” show van der Spek exposing some of the common tourist scams in the resort island.

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