Most residents reluctant to join neighborhood watch

Most residents reluctant to join neighborhood watch

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In a bid to safeguard their areas, a task which the police are
either unwilling or unable to do, some Jakarta residents take
part in a self-protection scheme in their respective neighborhood
units, also known as siskamling, but others prefer to hire
security guards in their areas.

"It is too tiring to participate in the siskamling as we must
walk around the complex every night until dawn, and yet I am
supposed to remain fresh before going to work the next morning,"
said Susanto, 25, a resident of Jatinegara, East Jakarta.

Susanto who works at a private company in Sunter, North
Jakarta said he preferred his neighborhood unit to hire security
guards to ensure security in the neighborhood.

Susanto said that the residents were only required to pay Rp
10,000 a month per family. The total security fund collected from
the residents is used to hire four security guards.

Concurring with Susanto, Harry A. Robbot, a chief of a
neighborhood unit in Kelapa Gading housing estate in North
Jakarta remarked that his neighborhood unit had hired 40 security
guards to safeguard the compound.

"Every resident must pay a security fee of Rp 75,000 a month
to pay the security guards in accordance with the minimum
regional wage (UMR)," said Harry.

Working in three shifts, Harry said, those security guards
were tasked with either checking the incoming and outgoing
visitors or vehicles passing the entrance gate or to patrol
around the complex.

However, Harry complained that despite the large number of
security guards and police in the city, they had all failed to
ensure security in the neighborhood.

"Last week, a house here became a target of theft while the
family was away. Fortunately, they only lost their TV set, while
three cars parking in the garage remained untouched," Harry said.

In order to safeguard their homes, many are reluctantly doing
it themselves, or siskamling, as a way to deal with the
increasing crime, which the city police seems powerless to
handle.

Meanwhile, Onny, a resident of Cempaka Putih in Central
Jakarta lamented the fact that the residents could not rely on
private security guards or the police just to safeguard one
compound.

"Not all residents are willing to pay higher security fees so
we cannot recruit more security guards. That's why we cannot give
them the responsibility," said Onny, who added that each family
had to pay Rp 30,000 per month for private security.

Onny revealed that his neighborhood unit had planned to revive
an occasional siskamling to help supplement the security due to
limited number of trustworthy security guards.

"On holidays and weekends, we will handle the night patrols,
while on working days we let the security guards do it," Onny
said.

Onny said the siskamling also was aimed at stimulating a
greater "sense of solidarity" among residents as the residents
would get acquainted with one another.

Meanwhile, in communities of low-income residents like those
in Radio Dalam, South Jakarta, security is not being taken care
of by anyone.

"There is no night patrol here. We don't have any security
personnel as we cannot afford to hire them," Triwahyudi, a Radio
Dalam resident said.

However, Triwahyudi said that the security condition was
relatively good thanks to the "crowded population" in his
community.

"The condition of the densely-populated area here has deterred
thieves or robbers as they would be an easy target for mobbing,"
said Triwahyudi, referring to the peculiarly Indonesian form of
vigilantism or "mob justice", wherein a suspected thief is
attacked and killed, and usually burned, by a large crowd when
caught in the act.

He recalled a time when a suspected pickpocket was mobbed and
was nearly torched by angry locals following an attempt to steal
a cellular phone from a resident. Most of the people consider
this the only recourse, because they do not feel they can rely on
police protection.