Activist predicts violence to prevail

Activist predicts violence to prevail

More than 70 suspected petty thieves have been beaten to
death, or set on fire, in Greater Jakarta's streets alone in the
recent months. Advisory board member of the Commission for
Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, Munir, makes a grim
prediction: violence is here to stay.

Question: Beating criminal suspects to death or setting them
alight rather than sending them to the police has continued in
the past few months. What do you think about this?

Answer: People have no trust in the country's legal system and
see that dealing with legal institutions and the police is too
difficult, so they prefer to take a pragmatic approach by taking
the law into their own hands.

Furthermore, those on the lower rungs of society whose social
identity has been disposed of by a development program that
placed too much stress on the economy, feel a rediscovery of
their identity when they join hands in beating up criminals.

What about conflicts among community members in Maluku,
Jakarta and other parts of the country?

Such horizontal conflicts have emerged due to heightened
economic competition as well as in politics or in the
administration, among social groupings with different religious,
ethnical and cultural backgrounds.

As a government weakens, such conflicts naturally erupt due to
the absence of social leadership, which has been systematically
eliminated by the New Order (1966-1998) government.

And what about the violence committed recently by rioters
following police raids on pirated video compact disc (VCD)
vendors in downtown Glodok, Jakarta?

After being raided by the police, the VCD vendors, who were
facing economic hardship, found a common symbol because they
shared something in common: their economic resources had been
threatened by the state. And because they knew that reporting
their case to the House of Representatives (DPR) would not
produce results instantly, they took the pragmatic way: rioting.

Do you see any links between such rioting and political
developments?

Social conflicts in Maluku might have relations with political
developments. But if we try to relate riotings and various
conflicts in Jakarta and Cirebon in West Java, we may fail to
understand the social anatomy of the conflict areas.

Why can't the government overcome these social problems?

First, because the government still cannot rely on its
institutions to overcome social problems without using violence.
The recent rioting in Glodok, for example, would not have
happened if the police (who confiscated pirated VCDs from
vendors) had understood the social conditions of the vendors, who
could become aggressive if their income sources were affected.

Secondly, even though the intensity of social conflicts can be
reduced, they cannot be solved within a short period of time. In
Maluku, for instance, social rehabilitation will take about five
to 10 years because communication systems among its societies
with different religious and ethnical backgrounds are so poor.

Solving conflicts among urban social groups, like those in
Jakarta, will take even longer because it will need fairness in
welfare distribution and an end to legal discrimination.

The government, therefore, must be able to ensure all citizens
that it will be fair in solving social problems.

Do you see that the government has taken any legal measures
against those involved in social violence?

This is not so clear. But I think not all the cases related to
the social violence can be legally processed.

Brawls among residents in Manggarai and Matraman in Jakarta,
for example, are pathologically criminal and those involved in
such conflicts must be legally processed.

But the authorities have failed to take legal sanctions
against them (which would otherwise provide) social education in
the implementation of legal systems.

However, legal processing of those involved in economic-
related violence, like the recent Glodok rioting, might worsen
the situation because the rioters have become the structural
victims of the past economic development. If the government wants
to eradicate piracy, it must first take measures against the
producers and investors, not the small vendors.

Do you see authorities as being involved in such conflicts?

Almost all the social conflicts cannot be separated from the
conduct of the authorities. At least, their unprofessionalism has
worsened the conflicts.

What can be done to stop the violence?

Everyone should avoid criminal acts, while the government,
particularly its police force, must improve professionalism in
law enforcement by improving the understanding of its officials
and other personnel in social, economic and anthropological
problems.

How much has the government done in this regard?

Its efforts are still very limited. The government is still
too busy with political affairs and the political elite's
attention on to how to reduce social tension is very low.
Furthermore, politicians' interpretation of violence through
their political views contributes to our failure in solving the
problems.

If that is the case, do you think that violence will decrease?

I don't think violence will decline in the country. Violent
actions will become a routine feature among people in the coming
years. (Rikza Abdullah)