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