Accused Of Slapping A Restaurant Employee, This Is Benny K Harman's Response

JAKARTA - Member of the House of Representatives Benny K Harman has denied allegations of mistreatment which was reported by Restaurant Manager Mai Ceng'go in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) to the police.

"I heard that I was reported by Manager Mai Ceng'go to the police on charges of committing violence," he said in a written statement in Jakarta, Thursday, May 26 evening.

He emphasized that Mai Ceng'go's manager spread false news to the public that he had committed violence many times, even slapping an employee of Mai Ceng'go Resto three times.

"What violence did I do. Wasn't the Mai Ceng'go Restaurant Manager actually the one who treated us violently," he said.

He promised to file a police report for the unpleasant behavior he received and report to the police for defamation, hoaxes, and spreading misinformation to the public.

Based on the Antara report, Benny explained the chronology of the incident where on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, he and his wife and children and relatives ate at Mai Ceng'go Restaurant at around 12.30 WITA.

"After entering the restaurant, we were immediately directed to the lower floor in an air-conditioned VIP room. We ourselves chose a place/table from the available tables, we sat down and there was no writing or any notification from the restaurant that the table we were seated at had been booked. (reservations)," he explained.

After ordering food, they were told to wait to be served immediately. But about 15 minutes later, without further ado they were told to leave the room immediately because the room was used/reserved.

"We were invited out. I asked why we were told to leave, were we not allowed to eat in the air-conditioned room. Indeed, I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, I was shabby because I had just come from working in the garden," he said.

Feeling that he was being treated unfairly, Benny intends to meet with the restaurant manager or restaurant owner, what really happened.

"We tell the employee serving to tell the manager or owner that we want to meet to avoid misunderstandings," he explained.

Because of the long wait, Benny then went to the "front desk" and asked to meet the manager or owner.

"At the 'front desk', we received information that the guest had just made a reservation by phone after our family came to the place so that we increasingly felt that we were being treated arbitrarily," he said.

Based on the employee's confession, the restaurant manager is currently in Bali. He asked who told him to get him out of the room and why, but the employee didn't answer.

"I pushed the employee's face and reminded that the treatment of visitors must be polite and courteous," he said.

He reminded employees and all restaurant owners to always be polite to all visitors because Labuan Bajo has become a super premium tourism destination.

"After meeting with the mother who was suspected of being the owner of the restaurant in the room, we then went home disappointed and looked for food at another restaurant," he said.

In fact, according to Benny, the restaurant represented by Kiki and Rikardo as the employees who kicked him out had apologized for their mistake.