JP/3/CRIME/0
Jakarta's population burden reaches saturation point: Governor
JAKARTA (JP): The governor is blaming crime in the city on an overly dense Jakarta population.
Governor Surjadi Soedirdja made the remark Tuesday in his speech at City Hall, after witnessing the signing of agreements between the City Land Transportation (Organda) and a number of public transportation firms.
"Formerly there used to be ample room in the informal sector. Now, no more," Surjadi said.
Making money in Jakarta is getting more and more difficult, especially for the marginal class of society, Surjadi said, adding that rural-to-urban migration is to blame.
Urbanization results in unemployment, which, in turn, leads to crime, Surjadi said.
Surjadi's statement was supported by Johannes Sutoyo, the head of the criminology department at the University of Indonesia.
"Although rural-to-urban migration does not directly impact on the migrators' personality, it does induce unhealthy competition which, coupled with urgent needs to meet basic necessities, stir people to commit crime," Johannes said.
This is made worse by metropolitan lifestyles which promote consumerism and grandiose displays of wealth, Johannes said, adding that this drives people to adopt short-cut methods to get rich.
Arief Budiman, a noted scholar at the Salatiga-based Satya Wacana Christian University in Central Java, agrees with Johannes.
"The core of the problem is uneven distribution of wealth," Arief said, adding that many people from rural areas came to Jakarta in the hope of achieving a better standard of living, which is unfortunately wrong.
"Some of them even cannot meet their own needs in the capital and then commit crimes," he said.
According to a study conducted by the Service Center for Justice and Dedication to Law (PPKH) of the University of Indonesia, every 13 minutes 11 criminal incidents occur in Jakarta, 60 percent of which fall into the category of property crimes.
Purniati, a criminologist who is also a PPKH researcher, said criminals are becoming more sophisticated and at the same time more sadistic.
"They are not concerned with the identities of their victims. They victimize everyone, irrespective of whether they are children, women, members of the Armed Forces or even generals," she said, apparently referring to the recent murder of Brig. Gen. TMF Tampubolon, after being attacked by four employed men after an argument.
According to Purniati, all this is caused by unscrupulous competition to earn a living and heavy pressure to survive. (06/09)