Army course for hoodlums praised, attacked

Army course for hoodlums praised, attacked

JAKARTA (JP): The authorities' decision to provide a two-week
training course for city street hoodlums at police and military
training centers has been received with mixed reactions from the
public.

Contacted by The Jakarta Post over the weekend, police and
military officers and several people commented that the course is
badly needed to improve the positive talents and skills of
hoodlums, or preman. Other people lashed out at the program,
saying that it may not immediately change the hoodlums into model
citizens.

Some other sources believed that the program was carried out
in order to solve the shortage of jail space at City Police
Headquarters, as well as at the nine city police precincts in and
around the city.

"I think the authorities have to review the program again
because, for me, it only wastes time and a limited police and
military budget," a banker who requested anonymity said.

Mukhlis, 37, a parking attendant in South Jakarta, said that
the program only, incorrectly, treated street criminals, giving
them free cloth, food and the training course.

"There are too many poor people, like me, in this city who
have never commit even a single crime and badly need a course
like that in order to make a better living," he said.

In the first phase of the course, called Candradimuka Course
I, 569 hoodlums have been selected to join the course, beginning
Friday and lasting through April 6.

Of that number, 419 hoodlums are undergoing the course at the
city infantry military regiment training center in Condet, East
Jakarta. The remaining 150 were sent to the State Police School
in Lido, Sukabumi, West Jakarta.

The course in Condet was officially opened by the head of the
city's Coordinating Agency for National Stability Maj. Gen.
Wiranto, while the other one in Lido, about 60 kilometers south
of the city, Deputy City Police Chief Brig. Gen. Hamami Nata. The
course is jointly sponsored and financed by various state bodies
and private institutions.

The program is mainly designed to immediately improve
discipline in the hoodlums. The intensive courses are expected to
give them proper skills, which might help them make a living
later on.

"It's free and easy to say something but what we need is real
action to help this group of people by giving them a chance to
work for a living by having jobs, which are lawful and allowed by
religion," commented West Jakarta police chief Lt. Col. Made
Mangku Pastika.

"At this time, we don't need too many words but concrete,
immediate action," he said.

Transmigration

South Jakarta police chief Lt. Col. SY Wenas, who sent about
80 hoodlums to Lido, suggested that the program be further
extended by transmigrating the trained graduates to other places
in Indonesia.

"We're talking about the mentality of a group of people," he
said. "So, it might not be easy to totally change their basic
attitude in just two weeks but we can do it by, for instance,
sending them to other towns as transmigrants."

"But we have to select them carefully," Wenas said.

Whatever the critics said, many of the hoodlums currently
being trained highly appreciated the program.

"We thank the authorities for allowing us to take such a
course, which has made us free from public pressure," Ujang
Saefullah, one of the detained hoodlums, said.

According to Officer Made, basically all human beings want to
be good but very often they cannot find the proper way to be
themselves.

"Everybody needs love, not hatred," he said.

The program is scheduled to be continued by the authorities
for a large number of other hoodlums currently being detained in
police custody. (bsr)