Safety Threats due to civil unrest or disruption

[Bad_azz]

I figured it may be pertinent to have a thread here where we can share police messages/news of any potential safety threats considering the current climate.
I'll kick things off with a message we just got re Bandung.
Mainly stating there have been incidences of robbery of people in/on their vehicles

 

[El_Goretto]

Thanks for starting the thread.

Will update too when I hear anything in jkt.

 

[Bad_azz]

Thanks for starting the thread.

Will update too when I hear anything in jkt.

Let's hope this is the emptiest thread

 

[atlantis]

Manado is a very safe city, one of these rare cities where in 1998 very little happened. I don't expect it to be different in the next few months but definitively petty thievery will increase. All police officers I know agree on that.

 

[harryopal1]

I figured it may be pertinent to have a thread here where we can share police messages/news of any potential safety threats considering the current climate.
I'll kick things off with a message we just got re Bandung.
Mainly stating there have been incidences of robbery of people in/on their vehicles

For a large city like Bandung isn't that pretty much how things usually go? At the same time it would seem probable that with the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs an increase in crime would follow.

 

[Helpful Herbert]

I'm just wondering if things don't get better (or actually get worse) by the end of May, there could be a couple of million who don't bother coming back to Jakarta in June, since there won't be jobs for them anyway. (like the "Pembantu not returning after lebaran" thing, but on a much bigger scale). This could reduce the potential for rioting later on.

 

[colroe]

Don't know whats happening here in Medan, I don't go out!!! If something happens of concern I will pass it on here

 

[centurion]

I figured it may be pertinent to have a thread here where we can share police messages/news of any potential safety threats considering the current climate.
I'll kick things off with a message we just got re Bandung.
Mainly stating there have been incidences of robbery of people in/on their vehicles

This attachment with news is a hoax, police says.

https://news.detik.com/berita/d-4958097/beredar-info-pemalakan-warga-di-cideng-jakpus-polisi-hoax/2

 

[dafluff]

I'm just wondering if things don't get better (or actually get worse) by the end of May, there could be a couple of million who don't bother coming back to Jakarta in June, since there won't be jobs for them anyway. (like the "Pembantu not returning after lebaran" thing, but on a much bigger scale). This could reduce the potential for rioting later on.

I'm wondering whether this is not the plan all along with allowing mudik to go on. People are much less likely to riot in their own villages, than against minority owned businesses in Jakarta.

 

[Bad_azz]

This attachment with news is a hoax, police says.

https://news.detik.com/berita/d-4958097/beredar-info-pemalakan-warga-di-cideng-jakpus-polisi-hoax/2

Oh thanks for that. Glad to hear it.
Let's hope things stay calm and trouble free.

 

[Nimbus]

A crisis at the same level of May 1998 is not going to happen overnight, or even the same month. People started losing jobs and their ability to buy food in January 1998. It took 4 months before the situation was ripe for disaster, and even then the riot wasn’t spontaneous, it was instigated by a certain faction in the military.

You would see a general increase in petty crime, but an all-out riot should be months away.

Watch out for staple foods (sembako), they tend to disappear during hard times. People either hoard or speculate on them. I’d say having a 2-month supply of things you eat is generally a good idea. Try to keep that inventory level until they disappear from the market, or until the crisis is over.

Now is the time to get in touch with your neighbors and discuss neighborhood security & safety. Burglary and other nuisances are going to increase.

 

[Jaime C]

Seems like valid ideas, Nimbus.

Even before we came to Indonesia, I encouraged my MIL to have a couple months stock of staples. An extra medium sized gas container, 4 “gallon” water bottles, rice, and other medical items for my wheelchair bound FIL.

We brought some basics, like canned soup, pasta, pasta sauce, tortillas, and refried beans with us when we came last month.

 

[Nimbus]

Seems like valid ideas, Nimbus.

Even before we came to Indonesia, I encouraged my MIL to have a couple months stock of staples. An extra medium sized gas container, 4 “gallon” water bottles, rice, and other medical items for my wheelchair bound FIL.

We brought some basics, like canned soup, pasta, pasta sauce, tortillas, and refried beans with us when we came last month.

Right. Get some non-perishables while you still can. Traditionally Indonesians would keep some ikan asin, abon, and dendeng to go with rice. Having powdered chili peppers is nice. Canned goods can last a year of two, so having some corned beef and sardines is good.

I’m having trouble just finding all-purpose flour around here, I have to hunt for more. Jasmine rice is nowhere to be seen. Pancake batter is still available though, so we got enough of it.

 

[Bad_azz]

We are fine for supplies, and grow our own food too, I have no problem sourcing flour here.

 

[Nimbus]

We are fine for supplies, and grow our own food too, I have no problem sourcing flour here.

Having your own garden is definitely nice. All I can manage is one tomato plant.

 

[Jaime C]

We have a Papaya tree, and that’s it. I guess we could do some box planters on our upstairs deck.

 

[Puspawarna]

We have a Papaya tree, and that’s it. I guess we could do some box planters on our upstairs deck.

Funny you should mention that, I was just thinking about the papaya trees around here (there are always volunteers springing up). It's hard to beat the birds and bats to the fruit, but it occurred to me that I should consult my Indonesian recipes for some dishes using papaya leaves.

 

[atlantis]

Undoubtedly the level of small crime, anywhere in the archipelago has increased already and will be higher in the future than what it was used to be in Indonesia. I can already see a few little changes. No big deal so far but if the situation worsen, a few easy precautions should be taken.

A lot of people who already had troubles to make a living have lost their job and have almost no income to survive. Most are genuinely honest people but some may turn to crime of opportunity. Some of us probably would if placed in a similar situation, not being able to feed our loved ones.

As a matter of example, two days ago we had a truck going 2 hours away from Manado packed with F&B supply for client resorts in the islands. I sent 3 of our staff with the truck, requesting two of them being in the cabin and 1 in the back. Truck has been stopped 3 times on the way, officially for an health control. Out of the three times, in two occasions people from the village tried to climb at the back of the truck… and aborted the attempt when they saw the third driver being in the back.

I don’t go anymore every night to the main wet market of my city since most Hotels and Resorts here are now closed, just having their remaining staff to feed, but I still go there twice a week. Every time I go there a random trader laments that someone stole their goods while they were sleeping. It is something I rarely heard before despite the bad reputation markets have. More unemployed people are roaming in search of something to steal. Nothing to be paranoid of, but it is probably a good time to make sure that our own negligence does not put us at risk of being stolen.

I hinted at it in a previous post that in February I started to increase security of both our house, office and staff mess along with the security of our warehouses. We checked and replace all cables of CCTV, added some cameras, checked and replaced the broken glass on top of the warehouse compound walls, changed the gate accessing the warehouse...etc. It won’t deter an hungry mob but definitely turn off the unequipped would be thieves. Anyway I don’t think that we will have to face an hungry mob here in Manado, at least not before months of economical hardship.

We’ve had to lay down most of our staff but we made sure that each of the one affected by the decision were leaving us with a bonus and an extra month of salary. In such period you don’t want to have anyone holding a grudge against you. Those who remain with us are thankful and I know that we can trust them in case of problem.

But again, it’s’ very easy for me to say “don’t panic, things are gonna be ok, just do a bit of this and that and step up a bit your security". I don’t look anywhere chinese and “we”, the western bule2, are not the prime target if the shit hits the fan.

 

[dafluff]

If possible, and not already, this would be a time to engage with your immediate community. This will be even more effective if you live outside of the urban areas, but still effective nonetheless.

I have been in contact with my village chief several times already inquiring if there is anything I could help with. Our village is not hugely reliant on tourism, and there are still a lot of people working in food production (raising pigs/cows/chicken, fishing, farming, etc), so lack of food is not an immediate concern for us.

There is a tailor in the village, and I have ordered 200 masks from them, and donated them via the village chief. Sure I could buy the masks online or whatever, but by doing it locally helps both when buying and donating.

The point being it is important to be part of the community in the best of times, but much more so in the bad times...

 

[Burungkecil]

I was here in 1998 but am optimistic that things won't get that bad this time around.

We are fortunate enough to live close to TNI headquarters and have several high-ranking serving and retired military officers living in our housing complex so with luck there will be some protection. Perhaps more importantly though the relationship between the residents in our complex and those in the surrounding kampung is good.

Nevertheless, if like myself you haven't registered with your embassy recently now might be a good time to do it. (If your ambassador hasn't run off home)