Killer's arrest stuns peacefull neighborhood
JAKARTA (JP): The arrest of 22-year-old Suryadi, alias Otong, alias Bram, for the murder of volunteer counselor Marthadinata shocked his neighbors along Jl. Berlian III in Sumur Batu subdistrict in Central Jakarta.
In the eyes of the locals, Otong -- as they often called him -- was a calm person.
Therefore it was not easy for them to believe that one of the young men in their peaceful neighborhood had brutally killed his own next-door neighbor.
"He's a very quiet man but also helpful if anyone in the neighborhood needs help," Ritha, who lived next to the victim's house, recalled.
Almost all of the local residents, young and old, expressed similar opinions about the suspect to The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Born in 1976 in Jakarta, Otong is the fifth of seven children of Sunarji, a construction worker, and Dati, a laundress.
He lived together with his parents and two sisters Rohani and Rohati in their ramshackle 36-square-meter house.
One wall of the poor family's wooden house adjoins the house of the victim's family.
Their neighbors, including the parents of the victim, said the Sunarjis never had problems with other people in the area.
"My family often asked their (the Sunarjis) help to keep the keys of our house for a while when all of us decided to go out at the same time," said the victim's father, Leo Haryono.
According to Otong, a technical high school graduate, he once worked at a repair shop owned by the Astra automobile company.
"He, however, worked at the repair shop producing rims of wheels for vehicles only for six months.
When his contract ended, he wasted most of his time at home," said his mother, Dati.
Sometimes, Otong said, he was hired by his neighbors to paint or refurbish their houses.
Sumiran, one of his close neighbors, said: "Otong is not the type of person who would easily get angry.
He never got mad although people here often teased him. He just remained quiet. That's why many of us here are surprised that he had committed such a crime."
Housewife Elly, in her 40s, commented: "He has no single characteristic to suggest he was such a dreadful murderer.
"But who knows? Anyone could run amok at some time without consideration."
His other neighbors assumed that Otong might have badly needed money for his marriage.
According to his mother, Otong was to marry on Nov. 29.
"We are indeed badly looking for money but not for his wedding ceremony. It is for his father's debt," Dati told the Post on Sunday.
Otong's mother, who has not met her son since his arrest on Saturday evening, could not believe that her loved one had turned into the cold-blooded killer of their own neighbor.
"To be honest, I could not believe the (police) charge against my son," she said.
She recalled that she and her husband Sunarji were involved in a heated quarrel over the amount of money Sunarji could spend on his trip to the congress of Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) in Bali.
Sunarji, a strong supporter of the party, insisted his wife prepare Rp 1.5 million in cash which he would use to pay his debt shortly after returning from the congress, she said.
"Otong saw the quarrel," Dati recalled.
Her husband even asked her to sell the house for Rp 25 million (US$2,800), she said, adding that the victim's parents had once offered Rp 20 million for it.
Dati vowed not to sell the one-bedroom house, which she inherited from her parents.
Otong, who looked ready to face the punishment, said simply to reporters on Saturday evening: "I really feel sorry. I was suddenly possessed by an evil spirit. Now I have to take the responsibility." (emf/ind)