In the face of the controversy over a video depicting a Bali traffic police officer extorting a tourist, a policeman in the small town of Gresik, East Java, has won praise for refusing to compromise with any traffic offenders, including his own wife.



First Adj. Insp. Jailani rose to fame last month after a number of Facebook users applauded his impeccable service for almost 10 years in Gresik.



'My elder daughter, Nilam, who loves using Facebook, stumbled upon a page where some people discussed a news article about me. She said 'Dad, you're on Facebook,'' the 44-year-old Jailani said in Surabaya, East Java, over the weekend.



Many Facebook users described Jailani as a kind policeman. He claimed that he never tolerates or takes bribe from anyone who breaks traffic rules, regardless of their status.



Jailani even has given tickets to fellow police and soldiers. 'I have been doing this every day for years. Why are people just realizing it?' he said.



Jailani was tested when he secured the Gresik Car Free Day area. That weekend, he stopped his wife, who was about to enter the free vehicle zone with her motorcycle.



'Several people saw this and said 'Lho kok bojone dewek ditilang?' [Why are you ticketing your own spouse?] I said no problem. Everyone should be aware of the rules,' Jailani said in Javanese.



Jailani once made a record by issuing 2,400 tickets in a year. He has received numerous awards from a regional news channel, local communities and his own force.



'My superior at the Gresik Police Precinct offered me a scholarship to go to study at a university in Surabaya. However, my wife didn't give her consent, considering my mature age,' he said.



Aside from his daily duty, Jailani also participates in 'Opera van Police', where policemen stage a traditional comedy act to raise awareness about traffic safety.



The story of a good policeman in a small town might be enough to counter the negative image caused by a policeman who allegedly extorted a foreign tourist in the world-famous tourism spot, Bali.



Earlier this month, a video depicting the rogue policeman went viral. The policeman, identified as Second Insp. Komang Sarjana, stopped Van Der Spek, a Dutch television journalist, near Lio Square Police post in Northern Kota for not wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle



The policeman said that Spek could give him Rp 200,000 (US$20.59) in lieu of issuing him a ticket that would have required him to pay a bigger fine at Denpasar courthouse.



After paying the bribe, the policeman invited Spek to have a beer-drinking session at the police post. Komang is now being questioned by the Bali Police's professional division.



What Komang was doing is nothing new to many Indonesians.



'Last February, I was taking a taxi when a policeman stopped us at Margonda, Depok, West Java. He insisted that the taxi had run a red light. In the end I paid Rp 20,000,' Suci, who lives in Depok, said.



Putera, a university student at Padjajaran University in Bandung, West Java, said that a policeman once suggested that he pay the fine directly to the policeman's pocket. 'I was in a hurry to go to Jakarta. I asked the policeman to give me a blue traffic ticket, so that I could pay the Rp 250,000 fine via bank transfer. The officer claimed that he had no blue ticket. After a long negotiation, I gave him Rp 50,000,' he said.



Some NGOs found that corruption has become deep-rooted in the police force.



In 2009, the Transparency International Indonesia (TII) survey listed the National Police as the most bribe-riddled institution in the country.



In 2011, the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) urged the disclosure of 17 suspiciously large bank accounts of the police top brass. The National Police, however, declined to release details of their investigation into the accounts.



As of April, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has seized dozens of luxurious houses, plots of land and vehicles belonging to graft suspect Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, the former chief of the National Traffic Police Corps (Korlantas)

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