Home Minister: Fake e-KTP Can Not Be Used

Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo.

Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo ensured that the residents’ database is not breached and the findings of a sack of electronic resident identity cards (e-KTP) in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta does not affect the database because the perpetrators only sell blank e-KTPs and they do not have any access to the database.

“The blank e-KTPs that are sold (illegally by the perpetrators) cannot fully functioning like a real e-KTP, because the real e-KTP printed by a programmed special printer which only owned by the Ministry’s Directorare General of Population and Civil Registration (Dukcapil) as the sole holder of the residents’ database,” Tjahjo said in Jakarta, Monday (12/10).

Regarding the findings of 2,158 pieces of e-KTP in Duren Sawit, the Minister said that the police are still investigating the case. However, he suspected that the e-KTPs disposal on Duren Sawit was an intentional act because the sack of e-KTPs was disposed in a place that can be easily seen by the public. For the record, one day earlier the police uncovered a case of illegal online selling of 10 blank e-KTPs.

Regarding this problem, Minister Tjahjo explained preventive measures to be taken in order to avoid similar cases, such as to reinforce the Standard Operating Procedure on the Ministry’s Population and Civil Registration (Dukcapil) Directorate General for e-KTP management and to tighten the process’ supervision. The public are also encouraged to report any findings of counterfeiting and misuse of e-KTP to the Ministry’s Hotline number (1500-0537). The Minister also urged the people to cut expired e-KTPs in order to avoid its misuse.

In the meantime, the Ministry’s Head of Information Center Bahtiar said that both cases are suspected to worsen the situation of the upcoming 2019 Election. “We entrust the investigation of the cases to the police,” he said, adding that the people must not provoked by the perpetrators. (Puspen Kemendagri/ES)

Translated by: Galuh Wicaksono
Edited by: Mia Medyana