Criminologist warns of more conflicts during campaign

Damar Harsanto and Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With the legislative election campaign kicking off on Thursday, University of Indonesia criminologist Erlangga Masdiana warned the Jakarta administration and the Jakarta Police of the danger of conflicts during the three-week campaign.

"Some places, mostly along the city's borders, are prone to community conflicts. This could be dangerous as unscrupulous political parties might take advantage of the conflicts as a commodity for their political agenda," he told The Jakarta Post recently.

Erlangga said those areas that are home to people from various ethnic groups, such as Cakung and Kramat Jati in East Jakarta and Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta, would be most prone to clashes.

There have been conflicts in these areas even when there were no elections, he said.

"Most of the people (in these areas) are ill-informed. Sometimes they oppose new development and incoming leaders from outside their community. They will find it difficult to accept differences as part of the effort to become a more democratic society," he said.

Erlangga also criticized the General Elections Commission and the government for their lack of effort to reach out to heterogeneous communities.

"The government and the commission must take immediate action to prevent possible clashes in these communities and to anticipate possible maneuvers by political parties to take advantage of conflicts at the grassroots level as ammunition for the elections."

There have been numerous clashes between ethnic and religious groups in the capital over the years, with the latest deadly incident taking place in 1998 in Ketapang, West Jakarta. In that incident, at least 14 people were killed, seven churches were burned down and three bank buildings were damaged.

"The violence was sparked by a clash between rival local thugs, but when political interests interfered the matter turned into an ethnic and religious conflict," Erlangga said.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara said his officers were ready to prevent any clashes.

"We will prioritize conflict-prone areas by deploying more personnel there compared to other areas that are more peaceful," he said.

Makbul declined to identify conflict-prone areas, only saying that the general election would be safe. Police declared themselves to be on high-alert four days before the campaign period began.

Jakarta Police will deploy 4,000 officers during the campaign period, and beef up its force to 15,000 on election day.

To assist the police, the Jakarta Public Order Agency will deploy its 48,000 officers in neighborhoods throughout the city. They will be assigned to guard about 24,000 polling stations.

"The officers will be deployed from the start of the campaign period until the end of the elections," agency head Soebagio said, adding that the officers had been trained in martial arts and would be armed with rattan switches.