Clash at Manggarai

Clash at Manggarai

Although Jakartans are certainly no strangers to civil unrest,
the brawl that pitted two neighborhoods in the Manggarai area of
South Jakarta against each other last weekend has drawn our
attention once again to the growing social problems our
overcrowded metropolis is facing.

This latest violence left two people dead and scores of others
wounded. At least eight houses were burned or damaged. Many of
the more peace-loving residents of the two neighborhoods --
Mentengjaya and Matramanjaya -- chose to flee and abandon their
homes for several days rather than live in the subsequent
atmosphere of tension and fear hanging over the area.

To date, even local residents are finding it difficult to
explain precisely how this latest brawl began, or what exactly
sparked it. All that both locals and outsiders seem to
unanimously agree on is that although fights between the two
neighborhoods were not uncommon -- indeed, they seem to have
become more or less a tradition over past years -- this latest
incident is the worst to have occurred so far.

Jakarta's deputy governor for administrative affairs, Abdul
Kahfi, has ordered his office to conduct an investigation of the
incident in an effort to pinpoint the source of the trouble and
thereby help formulate effective preventive measures for the
future.

But while the exact cause of last weekend's violence has yet
to be determined, the authorities seem to agree that though
Manggarai's problems are much the same as those of most low-
income neighborhoods in the city -- that is, overcrowding and
poor living standards -- the existence of organized bands of
youths in this particular area may have been a contributing
factor.

Even so, though neighborhood brawls have become somewhat
routine in the area, a clear and rather frightening change in the
pattern of the violence appears to have taken place. Whereas in
previous years fights were restricted to individuals or small
groups which could be easily contained, much larger groups are at
present involved. In essence, the individual fights have turned
into neighborhood battles.

What all this seems to signify is that what sociologists refer
to as the subculture of violence has contributed to the
aggravation of the already poor and precarious conditions in the
Manggarai area. It is fortunate that the authorities seem to be
well aware of the dangers of such a situation. South Jakarta
Mayor Pardjoko, has proposed, among other things, thinning out
the area's population by building low-cost apartments and
resettling people elsewhere.

Whatever the case, Manggarai's problems are clearly only one
manifestation of Jakarta's complex social problems. To a lesser
or greater degree, the same problems exist in the many other poor
neighborhoods scattered across the city. Building better housing
facilities, cleaning up neighborhoods and resettling people to
seek a better life elsewhere are commendable solutions -- if the
money can be found in this current crisis.

For the present, it seems that the most effective short-term
solution to Jakarta's community problems might be to call on
neighborhood associations to do their utmost to improve living
conditions in their area with the help, of course, of the city
administration.