"The local residents played their parts in maintaining security during the arrival of the heads of states at Meruorah. They were all enthusiastic," Admiral Margono told journalists at the Marina Port of Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai District, Wednesday.
According to the commander, local residents appeared enthusiastic when the cars transporting ASEAN heads of states passed by in the direction of Meruorah Hotel, Labuan Bajo. He affirmed that the residents helped to maintain security by refraining from doing any activities that may disrupt order.
This is also in accordance with President Joko Widodo's directive to ensure that the residents' activities and traffic remained uninterrupted during the international event.
"In accordance with his (the president's) directive, we ensured that our security measures do not disrupt the residents' activities. When the delegates are passing by, we encourage residents to stop (the traffic flow). Once the delegates have passed, we reopen the flow," he elaborated.
Furthermore, the admiral urged his soldiers to conduct their security duties in a humane manner.
He believes that the application of this humane approach had encouraged the residents to support the security forces' duty by partaking in maintaining security for the high-level event.
"I always remind soldiers on duty to act in a humane manner. Hopefully, our measures help to ensure the smooth running of the event without interfering with the residents' activities," he stated optimistically.
The TNI, along with the National Police (Polri), have been conducting readiness roll calls for personnel tasked with maintaining safety and security during the summit, starting from May 7 until May 13.
As many as 12 thousand personnel have been deployed to apply security measures under the commands of their respective task forces.
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