Batam Directly Borders With Other Countries, Needs Super Extra Attention

Photo by nizar kauzar on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Member of Commission III of the House of Representatives Heru Widodo assessed that Batam City, which is directly adjacent to Singapore and Malaysia, requires extra security.

According to him, the security is not only about securing the traffic of people entering and leaving Indonesia through Batam, but also the traffic of legal and illegal goods.

"I think because Batam is a direct boundary with another country, Singapore, then of course there must be extra security. Not only from the trajectory of the people, but also the crossing of goods, both legal and illegal," said Heru after attended a meeting of the Committee III of the DPR's Kunspek Team with the Riau Islands Police Chief (Kepri) and the Regional Head of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemkumham) Riau Islands, in Batam, Riau Islands.

During the meeting, Heru found that ports in Riau Islands during the holidays and the Lebaran homecoming flow which then experienced a shortage of human resources (HR). According to data from Kakanwil Kemkumham Kepri, the number of ship passengers during the Lebaran homecoming on D-7 to D+7 Idul Fitri was 34,200 people with only 81 immigration employees.

This figure means, for 1 immigration employee must serve about 4,222 passengers every day. For this reason, the politician from the National Awakening Party (PKB) proposed adding additional personnel to improve immigration services in the Riau Islands.

"I think this also needs to be evaluated and this becomes our input in Commission III to provide support to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, especially in the Riau Islands, to add personnel so that performance can increase," he asked as quoted from the parliament's official website, Saturday. June 11th.

In addition, regarding the increasing trend of COVID-19 cases in various regions, Heru emphasized that border areas, such as Batam, could tighten screening so that new variants of COVID-19 from other countries would not enter Indonesia.

"I think because Batam is a direct border with Singapore, the screening must also be tightened, don't let this become an entry point for the spread of new COVID-19 which then adds other variants or will increase the number of cases of COVID-19 in the country. Indonesia," he added.

Finally, the legislator for the electoral district (dapil) of South Kalimantan II assessed that the performance of the Polda and Kanwil Kemkumham Kepri was quite good and did not experience many obstacles. For this reason, he hopes that this good performance will be maintained and improved. This is because Commission III and the government will continue to support these good works so that stability is maintained.

"Hopefully in the future the Riau Archipelago Police and the Ministry of Law and Human Rights will continue to maintain stability in their performance and continue to improve their performance, because currently it is very good. I think the support from Commission III friends, Commission III colleagues, and also from the government this is also needed and I personally from Commission III will certainly be very supportive as long as it is for the benefit of the performances of the Police and the Ministry of Law and Human Rights I will personally support it," he concluded.