Experts urge high school students to end brawls

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)