Experts warn of parties exploiting the jobless

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As political parties prepare for the 2004 General Election, experts warned the government on Wednesday of the possible mobilization of unemployed people for vested political interests.

Psychiatrist Limas Sutanto said the unemployed had the characteristics that would be of use for people with political interests. That is they tend to be aggressive, narrow-minded, egocentric, irritable, ignorant, and bad-tempered.

Limas said those characteristics emerged as a result of the psychological pain caused by their failure to fulfill a basic need -- to land a job.

"A great number of unemployed people can easily be found in areas with escalating social unrest because there are many players -- people with vested interests -- taking advantage of the unemployed people's weaknesses: low self-reflection and strained relationships with others," he told The Jakarta Post.

Currently, there are 40 million unemployed in the country, from a total potential workforce of 99 million. And some 59 percent of the workforce stay in the villages.

Pinky Saptandari, head of the school of anthropology at the Surabaya-based Airlangga University in East Java, said that many of the unemployed would see the 2004 election as an opportunity to make instant money.

"The unemployed will do anything to serve any political parties that can give them money, even for only Rp 5,000 (55 U.S. cents) or Rp 10,000," she said.

Pinky added that such mass mobilization could create conflicts among the parties' supporters. "It can be an instant job opportunity that leads to destructive activities," she said.

Sociologist Ignas Kleden said the unemployed were able to be exploited for political purposes because they were politically and economically unstable.

"They can stand not having a dwelling place and decent clothing but they cannot tolerate hunger. In this case, the jobless people will accept any job that can bring instant cash in a bid to survive," he said.

Ignas, who is also the director of the Center for Eastern Indonesia Affairs (CEIA), said that people of dubious motives could easily hire the unemployed to stage a rally, trigger social unrest and even commit crime.

"The unemployed have unchanneled energy that if released could create massive unrest," he said.

Yet, the experts believe that family ties still play a major role in ameliorating the potential social distress caused by unemployment.

Limas said that the absence of visible distress in the country was not because the government had taken measures to tackle the unemployment problem.

"It is more because of the Indonesian people's ability to endure poverty and also due to their extended family's support," he said.

Pinky said a sense of belonging and brotherhood remained high among Indonesians.

"Here, especially in the villages, an extended family is still willing to finance its unemployed members' monthly needs like food, health services, and education," she said.

She urged the society to build moral power at the grassroots level through raising public awareness about political issues in the country to prevent the unemployed from being used by people with evil motives.

Meanwhile, Ignas warned the government that families had a limited capacity to care for their relatives. "The government cannot rely on the families' kindness all the time because it is its responsibility to create job openings and to improve the welfare of the unemployed," he said.