Plan to rid city of thugs received cooly by activists

Plan to rid city of thugs received cooly by activists

JAKARTA (JP): Two members of the National Commission on Human Rights have greeted the government-sponsored war against street hoodlums with mixed reactions.

Soetandyo Wignjosoebroto opined that the police operation does not really address the root of the problem while Muladi gave his support provided that no basic rights are violated in the process.

Soetandyo, who is also a sociology professor at the Surabaya- based Airlangga University, said in Surabaya that the action taken following last week's murder of a police officer in Jakarta's Blok M shopping center was "overly dramatic".

He pointed out that in their operation, the police not only rounded up street thugs but also anyone else suspected of posing a threat to security.

"It was all dramatized. The police also detained drunken people, gamblers, prostitutes and parking attendants during their operation," Soetandyo told Antara.

"Press coverage of the operation has made the security issue posed by street hoodlums more serious than it actually is. It's obvious that things are exaggerated," he added.

Because the operation was sparked by a murder incident in Jakarta, he said the operation should have been confined to the city of Jakarta.

He argued that street hoodlums are generally afraid of the police and that the Blok M suspect might not have killed the officer had he been aware of the policeman's status.

Moreover, official statistics show that the national crime rate has declined over the past few years.

The crimes in need of more serious attention are white collar and computer-related crimes, he asserted, which cause trillions of rupiahs in losses to the state.

In the Central Java capital of Semarang, Muladi made it clear that he supports a crackdown on hoodlums as long as no basic right are violated.

Muladi, who is also rector of Semarang's Diponegoro University, agrees that thugs must be "cleared out" to prevent them from making a living by extorting money from people.

The operation has also received the support of the Jakarta- based Legal Aid Foundation, which acknowledges that these thugs have at times come close to stirring public unrest.

The foundation's director of operations, Bambang Widjojanto, told The Jakarta Post yesterday, however, that the government should clearly define the term preman, or hoodlum.

"This definition is important so there won't be any arbitrary acts during the course of its implementation," he said.

The foundation also suggests that the problem of street violence be solved thoroughly, adding that repressive actions alone are not the most effective remedy.

The brokers who routinely collaborate with government officials by "helping" citizens at government offices, the foundation believes, should also be dealt with as "hoodlums".

Bambang pointed out that the "mysterious killings" of criminals in the early 1980s, known here as the Petrus killings, proved ineffective in curtailing crime.

According to Bambang, the extermination of hoodlums should start at the base of their support, which often comes from government officials and the people who use their service.

"Thugs are difficult to exterminate due to the involvement of these people," he said.

Meanwhile in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, police had rounded up 92 thugs as of yesterday.

The local police have found sufficient evidence to bring 17 of them to court, Antara reported. (pan)