Destructiveness of local spectators is pathological

Destructiveness of local spectators is pathological

Unruly behavior of spectators at major sports and music events
have haunted organizers. The latest case being the Thomas Cup
badminton championship in which the two final matches were called
called off. Zainul Biran, head of the Social Psychology
Department of the University of Indonesia, discusses this
phenomena in an interview with The Jakarta Post.

Q: Malaysian shuttlers and officials have complained about the
terror inflicted by Indonesian spectators in Thomas Cup
championship. How could our supporters behave like that?

A: I think we should differentiate spectators of badminton from
those of soccer matches who vented their frustration over a
game's outcome by damaging public property. I personally think
that our spectators who jeered and booed foreign players during
the badminton championship, were not acting out of line. Only a
few did, by throwing empty water bottles at foreign players or
officials. It's still within acceptable ranges of behavior ...
after all, they were acting the way any mass of people would act.

Q: They were only expressing their excitement, and did not show
destructive tendencies. I believe our players have occasionally
experienced similar treatment abroad.

A: I am more concerned about soccer match spectators, music group
fans or even ill-behaved students on the streets, who often
vandalize public property. East Javanese soccer supporters who
recently damaged train cars on their way home after their home
team was beaten by the Bandung team in Jakarta, for instance,
showed signs of social pathology.

Q: What factors cause this social pathology?

A: I believe too many variables are involved in this social
symptom. There is, for instance, frustration. Many of the
football fans are youths who may be dropouts or are jobless. They
are displacing their frustration over one condition, in this case
unemployment, to another condition, which is their home team's
defeat in a soccer match.

Most of us have certain levels of aggression, or averse
conditions in psychological terms, buried inside of us. This
aggression needs to find an outlet from one time to another.
Usually, reactions such as these are spontaneous, impromptu, so a
football match can be the channeled for the expression of such an
aggression.

Behavior becomes pathological when people vent their
aggression in destructive ways. The youths who smashed expensive
cars, when they were denied entrance to the Metallica music group
concert here because they did not buy tickets, planned to destroy
things, as did the football fans, after their home team was
defeated. It's like they were saying, "We'll do this or that if
they won't let us in." It's like they were saying, "We'll get
angry if our team is defeated."

Q: What turned the supposedly spontaneous reaction or expression
of frustration into a pathological condition?

A: I have been observing press reports about youth vandalism,
including that carried out by high school students, and cannot
help but feeling that there is something wrong with our society.
We have to admit that there are many social gaps, which
contribute to the feeling of frustration of these people. What is
hard to understand is why they choose destructive, over
constructive expression. Why do they vent their anger by
destroying public property?

Certainly there are other factors, too, that contribute to the
pathological condition. For instance, alcohol. I do not know for
sure, but I think many of the youths who damaged public property
did so when they were drunk. What's unfortunate is that our
people tend to condone wrongdoing which is done under the
influence of alcohol. We'd say, "No wonder those youths are
smashing buses and cars, they are drunk."

Q: Does the fact that the objects of these people's fury are
public property, or the belongings of the privileged few in
society, have any significance?

As I said, social gaps play a factor in these people's acts.
But we can't discount the fact that some of the youths, like high
school students in Jakarta, do not have any specified targets for
their anger. They smashed buses, roadside vendor stalls,
anything. That's what defines their acts so pathological.

These students, these people, show little or no regard for
other people's property, even other people's lives. They do not
stop to think that the boy they hit, or kill, is somebody's son;
that a woman who gets caught in their fights and is hurt, is
someone's mother. They show just how dehumanized our society has
become.

Q: What ways would you suggest to help control the situation?

A: Closing the gaps in the society would be the ideal answer, but
it would take too long a time. Instead, I suggest that the
authorities and we, as members of the society, take temporary
measures. The government should launch consistent and firm
actions such as controlling the production of alcoholic beverages
or subjecting the young offenders to stricter punishment.

I also suggest that the youths, who have become so used to
destroying things, be committed to a special program which
teaches them to build, instead of destroy. Send the young
offenders to transmigration sites, and let them face real
situations in which they have to build things in order to
survive. (swe)