How the poor should be treated

How the poor should be treated

Private TV station SCTV, on its afternoon news report last
Thursday, nicely presented the encounter between a group from the
Urban Poor Consortium protesting against injustice and a group
claiming to be affiliated with the Betawi Brotherhood Forum.

The Betawi forum was said to have resorted to violence after
being provoked by the poor people, who gathered to lodge their
complaint about unfair treatment with the National Commission on
Human Rights.

However, it is now almost impossible for the police to avoid
taking legal action against members of the Betawi forum
responsible for the violence, as the perpetrators were caught
red-handed on TV. The impact of the television coverage, followed
by print media reports, has been so intensive and widespread that
strong criticism and condemnation of the event is being voiced in
public circles and by social organizations.

In terms of anarchic violence, it was the second incident
following the ransacking of the office of the Commission for
Missing Persons and Victims of Violence by an unidentified mob.

However unbecoming the Urban Poor Consortium may have
expressed its members' grievances, nobody must respond to them
with violence.

Regardless of one's inclinations, the essence of democracy and
the law must entail the defense and protection of those who are
oppressed and marginalized. These people must be defended through
advocacy and the harnessing of public opinion.

-- Kompas, Jakarta