Increasing social pressure triples suicide cases

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Increasing social pressure in Jakarta is believed to be the main factor in people committing suicide, experts say, in response to a tripling in the number of suicide cases reported by the police.

In the first semester of 2003, suicides had tripled to 62 from last year's 19 over the same period. Police reports say that most people committed suicide by hanging themselves, while some used other methods, including drinking poisonous substances, cutting blood vessels, jumping from high-rise buildings or setting themselves on fire.

Financial difficulties were the dominant reason for people wishing to end their lives. Other causes included the breakup of relationships and family-related stress.

Psychologist from the University of Indonesia Sartono Mukadis blamed the significant jump in suicides partly on tough urban living conditions.

"Jakarta has very few places where people can chat and share their feelings. At the same time, social pressures on people to move up the social ladder grow stronger. People already under stress cannot relieve their frustration and discontent," he said on Thursday.

Sartono revealed that his study was carried out in Batam island, Riau, last year, where 34 suicides were reported within 10 months.

He said that the high incidence of suicide in Batam was closely related to hostile conditions on the island, where solidarity within ethnic groups there had been severely undermined.

"Similar circumstances could occur in Jakarta, where people from different ethnic groups and social status live side by side."

Urban planning expert from Trisakti University Yayat Supriyatna said that Jakarta had become a more stressful city due to increasing social, political and economic problems.

He related the stress to chronic problems that had to be overcome by Jakartans, following the crisis that severely hit the country's economy in mid-1997.

In 1998, Jakartans had to cope with the bloody May riots, which led to the resignation of former president Soeharto. In 1999, political tension was heightened during the general election, and it was then followed by massive flooding that affected most areas in the capital in early 2002.

"Jakarta has become a stressful metropolis; it is a really unhealthy place to live," Yayat said.

He also blamed Jakarta's unhealthy state on overcrowding, which had led to a deterioration in the quality of people's lives.

Data from the city administration shows that the city's population density can be more than 14,000 people per square kilometer (sq km). In some areas, like Tambora, North Jakarta, and Senen, Central Jakarta, the number of residents can reach 20,000 per sq km.

Jakarta's population is about 18 million people by day and 11 million by night, due to inward commuting from adjacent urban area in Greater Jakarta.