Dancing cop buys legitimacy with the people
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Thushara Dibley and Wayne Palmer
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Norman singing his heart outYouTube |
Norman Kamaru, a Mobile Brigade police officer, filmed himself lip-synching Chaiyya-Chaiyya, a famous Bollywood hit, on the job in a backwater post of Gorontalo province. He did it to lighten the mood of a colleague who was down in the dumps after a domestic dispute with his wife. The video was uploaded by an unknown person to YouTube on 29 March 2011 where it quickly caught the attention of Indonesia’s lively cyber community. Within a few days the video went viral and Briptu Norman became an overnight celebrity.
Norman’s newfound fame has brought him many opportunities. Record studio Big Knob offered him a contract to produce a single. Bung Karno University offered him a full scholarship to study law. And there was even talk of him being given a motorcycle. Celebrity status will most likely bring him much much more. But it brought the police force, an institution in national disrepute, something even more valuable – a human face (with a tongue piercing).
Backtracking
The force’s initial reaction to the YouTube clip was that the dancing cop should be sanctioned for breaching its code of discipline. Spokesperson Anton Bachrul announced on 6 April that Norman should be punished by his superiors in Gorontalo province. According to Anton, Norman’s ‘undisciplined and childish behaviour’ had caught the attention
