Experts urge high school students to end brawls

JAKARTA (JP): Psychologist Tika Bisono and criminologist Erlangga Masdiana urged high school students on Saturday to start formulating their own solutions to bring an end to the continual street brawls in the capital.

Tika and Erlangga, both from the University of Indonesia, told a group of high school students in a discussion organized by Lagam, a nongovernmental organization, that as students were responsible for the brawls, the causes should be addressed among themselves and if possible also settled among by students.

The two reiterated that it was time now for the students to realize that their stay at high school level would not last long and interventions from outsiders would only worsen their problems as not all adults could understand the way youth think.

Methods to control student brawls have been widely discussed by many groups, including the government and police, but no remedy has touched the real causes of the student violence.

Many people blamed the education system itself, while others highlighted shortcomings of parents, individual schools, and society.

Tika said students themselves should be able to see the root of the problem which caused them to feud on the street with their fellow students.

"Is there anybody who knows why the problems are so crucial as to be a matter of life or death?" Tika asked the students.

Tommy, a student at the seminar, answered that the cause was low self esteem and pressure from peers to participate in the brawls. He said he did not want to be called a coward by his classmates if he refused to help them attack students from other schools.

"I have to defend my pride. I don't want to be called katrok or sayur, which literally means a coward," the student from state-run vocational high school SMK 19 said.

Tika suggested that students regard the calls merely as challenges to resist frustration and not be easily offended or enraged.

Erlangga said it was extremely sad to see students, who had no personal grievances with students from other schools, forced into street brawls for the sake of solidarity with classmates.

He said their time and energy would be much better spent on other more useful activities.

He suggested taking part in school extracurricular activities, if available, and if not ask principals and teachers to organize activities after regular lesson hours.

"Demand useful activities and don't chase students from other schools," Erlangga said.

Diana, from the Jakarta Student Forum (FKPJ), also supported the two experts' comments, saying that all the causes of the brawls stemmed from the students themselves, so they should be the ones at the center of any resolution.

"Students who take part in street brawls do so because of problems either with themselves, their families or their schools," Diana said, citing a recent survey by the student forum.

Catur, a student of state-run high school SMA 36, however, put part of the blame on schools and teachers for not providing high- quality education for students.

He said that if teachers at his school stopped trying to make extra money by, for example, selling clothes or shoes, and if the principal requested better school facilities from the government, the students would remain at school to study rather than wandering the streets.

Col. Ahmad Hasan, chief of the city police public guidance unit, who also spoke at the discussion, said 230 street brawls were recorded in 1998, with 15 fatalities and scores of students and bystanders injured. So far this year, at least five students have been killed in 25 street brawls.

"Four of the victims were killed in February, when 18 vicious street brawls among rival groups of students erupted," Ahmad said.

The problem of street fights between students from rival schools is not new for most Jakartans. These brutal after-school activities have been taking place for years. (emf)