Police urged to help maintain public security

Police urged to help maintain public security

JAKARTA (JP): Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and
Security Soesilo Soedarman, expressing concern over the recent
urban crime wave, urged the public to actively participate in the
Environmental Security System (Siskamling) to help maintain
public order and security.

Siskamling is an Indonesian way of patrolling at night,
carried out in shifts by members of a neighborhood unit.

"Maintaining order and security is not only the duty of the
police, but the community as well," Soesilo, who is also head of
the Association of Retired Servicemen (PEPABRI), was quoted as
saying by the Antara news agency.

Soesilo made his remarks after signing a cooperation agreement
with state-owned international telecommunication company PT
Indosat and state-owned telephone monopoly PT Telkom over the
weekend.

The increasing brutality displayed by criminals need not be
answered by "shock therapy", Soesilo said, "we just need to use
the existing laws to handle the problem."

Soesilo was apparently referring to the on-the-spot shootings
of criminals which darkened the early 1980s. This kind of
therapy, known as petrus (mysterious shooting to death of
criminals) was designed to drastically reduce criminality.

That the urban crime rate has reached alarming proportions is
supported by the research conducted by the Service Center for
Justice and Dedication to Law (PPKH) at the University of
Indonesia.

11 incidents

According to the study, every 13 minutes there are 11 criminal
incidents in Jakarta, 60 percent of which fall into the category
of property crime.

Purniati, a criminologist who is also a PPKH researcher, said
a similar crime clock occurs in a number of Indonesia's other
large cities such as Surabaya, East Java, Semarang, Central Java,
and Medan, North Sumatra.

Criminals are becoming more sophisticated, she said, adding
that at the same time they are becoming 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,"
Purniati said, referring to the recent murder of Brig. Gen. TMF
Tampubolon, after being attacked by a number of scoundrels.

It seems that today's criminals are not satisfied with simply
stealing the possessions of their victims. They do not hesitate
to batter, slit their victims' throats or even shoot them to
death, Purniati said.

All this, according to Purniati, is caused by unscrupulous
competition to earn a living and heavy pressure to maintain a
certain lifestyle in a metropolis like Jakarta. (06)