Justice by violence?

After a day of rioting, police and troops finally restored calm to Tasikmalaya, the normally placid West Javanese town where thousands of people went on a rampage Thursday, killing at least three people and damaging shops, churches and other property. For a while today the unrest spread to the nearby town of Ciawi. But apart from a couple of buildings being set ablaze, little damage was reported there before calm was restored.

One can hardly fail to note the similarities that exist between the Tasikmalaya incident and the one that rocked the East Java town of Situbondo a couple of months ago. In both cases the mob's anger was vented primarily on churches and people of Chinese ancestry although in both cases the initial motive that triggered the rampage had nothing to do with either religion or racial discord. In both cases the cause seemed to have been an injured sense of justice involving the public and certain authorities -- police brutality in the case of Tasikmalaya and a court ruling considered too lenient in Situbondo. Some rumors even explained the Situbondo riots as a manifestation of competition among the ruling elite.

Motives aside, however, the series of cases of mass violence that have shaken our society in the past few months -- Tasikmalaya was only the third major destructive mass riot to have occurred in the past five months -- leaves us with plenty to think about. It is a disturbing thought but it is difficult to escape the impression that we are becoming increasingly incited to commit acts of violence. It may not be too long before the tradition of tolerance and democratic deliberation for which we have prided ourselves for so long will be no more than an empty slogan.

If all this is true then clearly something in our society must be seriously wrong. The suggestion has been offered that an erosion of public trust in our state institutions may be at the root of many of our present problems. Too many cases of misconduct by what is, in official jargon, conveniently termed oknum -- misbehaving officials or members of groups -- have been there for all to see. Rumors about "court mafias" persist and even the Supreme Court, that ultimate bastion of impartiality and justice, is plagued by scandals and public controversies. On the other hand, although it is officially denied, as far as the public sees it, government employees are all too often tempted to push through their objectives, by hook if possible but by crook if necessary.

Security measures and appeals for calm and reason are of course welcome. But we believe that a good dose of introspection is necessary if we are to get to the root of many of our ills, of which our growing tendency toward violence as a means for solving problems and settling conflicts is certainly part. As has often been said, ours is still a paternal society in which good examples from above are of paramount importance in shaping public behavior. We sincerely believe that unless we are willing to take an honest look at ourselves we had better be prepared to see a recurrence of outbreaks such as the ones in Situbondo and Tasikmalaya. And who knows, the rampage then will be even closer to home than we would wish.