Hoodlums fight for control in Yogya

Asip A. Hasani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

While Yogyakarta is a popular tourist destination, it also houses the headquarters of several extremist organizations, such as Laskar Jihad and Majelis Mujahidin. Their presence could tarnish the city's efforts to promote tourism.

If that was not enough, violence has frequently erupted between supporters of rival political parties in the city, who sometimes wear Ninja-style outfits when attacking. So far, there has been no sign that the violence will end in the near future.

The latest violence flared up on Wednesday afternoon when attackers stormed Mataram movie theater wounding at least three people.

And last week, at least three people were killed, dozens of others injured, several houses and kiosks burnt or damaged during the latest attacks.

Two of the casualties, Nurgiyanto and Sigit, were supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), while the other one, Sofyan Handono, was a suspected member of the Ka'ba Defender Movement (GPK), a youth group affiliated to the United Development Party (PPP).

The spate of incidents have confused the public as leaders of the two parties have always denied any involvement in the attacks.

If the incidents have nothing to do with PPP and PDI Perjuangan, why do attackers often target supporters of the two parties or their local offices?

Both rival party leaders have signed peace pacts, but this has been proven fruitless to end the violence, which just goes to prove that they have failed to control their respective supporters, particularly the hoodlums among them.

"It's true that we can't fully control our supporters. But we need to emphasize that clashes between our supporters and rivals have nothing to do with political parties," Tatang Setiawan, deputy PDI Perjuangan chairman of Yogyakarta provincial branch, told The Jakarta Post.

Similar confessions were expressed by local deputy PPP chairman Sukri Fadholi, who added that a "third party" was also involved in the violent clashes, though he declined to be specific.

Many say the incidents were related to rival hoodlums struggling for political influence and control over certain areas of the city.

"This is a conflict between different groups of hoodlums affiliated with PDI Perjuangan and PPP," said a police detective, who wished to remain anonymous.

He said last week's attacks were retaliation by hoodlums linked to PPP who wanted to take revenge against earlier incidents last month by PDI Perjuangan supporters, which injured several GPK members.

Nuruddin Amin, leader of Sorjan -- a loose coalition of Yogyakarta's peace organizations -- said the fighting between rival groups of thugs was, among other things, due to internal gang struggles.

The loss of Golkar Party's political legitimacy following Soeharto's downfall from presidency in May 1998 has prompted many hoodlums to switch allegations to other parties, including PDI Perjuangan and PPP, in a move to retain their power.

The hoodlums used to serve as members of Golkar's security task force and a number of its affiliated youth organizations such as AMPI, Cakra and Pemuda Pancasila. They controlled major "economic resource" areas in Yogyakarta during Soeharto's repressive New Order regime.

Now, the hoodlums were struggling to push for "regeneration" within their groups, said Nurudin, who also chairs the Yogyakarta branch of Ansor -- a youth wing organization of the country's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

On the other hand, the need to embrace such groups of gangsters seems to be inevitable for major political parties in the political system, where physical pressure is quite effective to win competition for government posts.

"When a political party is vying for the post of regent, for instance, hoodlums play an important role to institute physical pressure and even terror against rivals," said political observer Pratikno from state-owned Gadjah Mada University.

He said a political conflict turns into fighting between gangsters.

He agreed with Nuruddin that the military have also played a role in the conflict, which has exacerbated the situation.

At least five suspects were arrested by local police over last week's attacks. All of the hoodlums were PDI Perjuangan supporters.

"If no members of the rival group are arrested, I'm sure that this violence will continue, because friends of suspects will accuse the police of taking sides with a certain group," said a PDI Perjuangan executive, who requested anonymity.

The number of hoodlums from PDI Perjuangan and PPP involved in the conflict, was almost equal. But thugs from PPP control much larger areas than PDI Perjuangan.

Umbulharjo bus station is one of the places where widespread extortion takes place, under the control of PPP-linked hoodlums.