'Bondo Nekad' is another dimension of hooliganism

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): The soccer match between Mitra of Surabaya and Mastrans of Bandung 10 days ago was marred by hooliganism primarily by Mitra supporters from Surabaya.

When Mitra was defeated in a penalty kickoff, its supporters went wild, stoning cars and buildings in the streets as they moved from Senayan stadium to the railway station, snatching food from street-side stalls without paying and then boarding trains to Surabaya without purchasing tickets. On their homeward journey they hurled stones at anything: station platforms, watch houses at crossroads, shops along the track, passing cars and others.

Who were these people? Were they really hooligans?

I doubt it. Some of them may be hoodlums or petty gangsters, but I think the majority were just ordinary people without criminal records. The Kompas daily reported that the supporters were young people, and that most of them did not have enough money to pay for the trip, let alone buy food and drinks along the journey. Yet they had decided to go to Jakarta to support their favorite team.

Why? Because they saw the trip as necessary after the mayor of Surabaya suggested that every neighborhood association in the city send 10 people to Jakarta to support their city team. My guess is that these penniless supporters must have thought the mayor or a group of rich people were going to finance the trip. So why not join the rally and have some fun?

The youths proudly called themselves the bondo nekad group, meaning a group of daring young people with the guts to embark on something risky or dangerous. To go to Jakarta, to stay there for at least 15 hours, to go back and forth between the railway station and Senayan stadium in Jakarta and then to go back to Surabaya without enough money for tickets, food or drinks is a "very daring" act indeed. But at the same time it is also very risky" and "very stupid". Nekad means: risky, stupid guts. The word has a negative connotation, which is a readiness to violate rules and regulations if necessary to accomplish whatever one has decided to achieve from the outset.

Bondo nekad roughly translates to only having stupid guts as one's capital, as one's driving force for an action. This expression is usually used to denote an act carried out solely on the basis of guts, without the support of adequate knowledge, skills or logistics; without the simplest calculation concerning the risks that may be involved.

Vandalism by soccer supporters is not a new phenomenon in Indonesia. It has happened many times before. Hurling stones from train wagons at anything outside is also not new to Surabaya soccer fans. This happens every time the Surabaya team is defeated. This incident has customarily been attributed to fanaticism and a lack of good sportsmanship. But I see a new element in the latest incident. In earlier incidents soccer fans involved in vandalism were people with money to pay for their trips, food and drink, but last time they were practically- bankrupt youths. To me this is new, something which may reflect a more serious social situation than just temporary acts of vandalism.

What makes people commit reckless acts based on stupid guts? Several things: Despair is one; disregard for law and order is another. On these Mitra supporters from Surabaya, I do not think that despair was the main cause of the vandalism. Despair may be a latent factor, but not the main reason.

I think a temporary sense of collective power was an important factor in this case. If you are penniless and hungry, you feel powerless when you are alone. But when hundreds of penniless and hungry young people come together, a sense of power emerges. What can a train conductor do to stop such a group? To call the police? What can the police do, if there are so many of them? The sheer number is the decisive factor. This group of Surabaya supporters felt strong and powerful because they had realized how big a group they were. Their feeling may be enhanced by a vague idea that they were doing the local government a favor: they were responding to a call by an important government official. This gave them a sense of legitimacy. Backed by this sense of legitimacy, they considered no one could harm them. They felt warranted in demanding anything they needed.

If this hypothesis is correct, it would not be an exaggeration to say we are facing an imminent explosive situation. The number of unemployed young people is alarmingly high in our society. Of these unemployed youths, many come from families which can no longer support them. These youths are hungry, penniless and angry. They wander from place to place each day, in search of a job. But jobs are only available to educated people, those who can speak English and can work a computer. Most of the unemployed youths do not have these knowledge and skills. So what are their prospects? Nothing! This is a situation of despair.

This is an ugly description of our society today, but such is the reality before us, I am afraid. The question is how can we, in this particular social atmosphere, prevent the situations that make the bondo nekad slogan even more popular with our youngsters. What must we do to prevent situations that could hurtle our youths toward reckless acts?

I do not know! But what we need in moments like this is empathy. If each of us has a little bit more empathy toward the less fortunate and the unfortunate many tragedies could be averted.

True, there are so many crazy and angry people walking our streets. But we can do something to reduce their craziness and their anger. We can do something to reduce the craziness of our time. We can do something to increase the sanity of our society.

The writer is an observer of social and cultural affairs.