'Bondo Nekad' is another dimension of hooliganism

'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.