'Predation features strongly in our sociaty'

'Predation features strongly in our sociaty'

The recent gang fights in Tanah Abang market have jolted many
people to the reality that preman or gang members exist among us
and are extorting money from people. Sociologist Hotman M.
Siahaan discusses the issue with The Jakarta Post.

Question: How do you explain "premanism"?

Answer: The word preman itself needs further clarification
because it has expanded beyond its original meaning. Preman is
originally from Medan and means manual workers who are engaged in
a wide variety of activities and persons who roam around and
fight. Later the word developed to also mean "informal" and
"private" before it arrived at its present meaning of violence or
criminal acts. Preman is always related to deviation of behavior
or something illegal. The word then has the ability to invoke
fear among the people.

What is unique is that preman eventually were able to organize
themselves into different "operation areas" thereby minimizing
disturbance inflicted upon the society through paid security.
That's why shop owners or street vendors, for example, prefer to
solve the problem of security with preman (by paying money)
rather than with security officials.

Q: Is it unreal security they are creating?

A: No, it's real, empirically. The legal certainty is probably
unreal for them.

Q: How do you explain this?

A: The law, in common sense, is supposed to be in line with
government regulation. In reality such a regulation doesn't work.
It is the preman's regulation that works. This explains why
people will have real security only if they pay the so-called
security fee to preman reigning in their area. The disturbance
comes mostly from preman. Therefore people don't seem to realize
that what they call security is in fact illegal.

Q: How did it start?

A: It exists because the law no longer functions. This will
automatically open the chance for preman to break the law. The
preman here function as the law itself. They take over the
security officials' role. For people in preman areas, therefore,
there is a special preman law and the law of security officials
is ignored.

The real question is why don't they pay the security fee to
the government security officials. The answer is the law, in
reality, cannot guarantee their security. Preman is a pragmatic
way to answer security problems.

In other words, "premanism" reigns because the law fails to
fill its function. This also explains "premanism" in a more elite
world, in the national political stage. Premanism in politics
happens because there are politicians who don't obey certain
political rules.

Q: Are you saying that "premanism" doesn't only occur in the
daily lives of grassroots community?

A: That's right. The July 27 incident is an example. The
incident broke out because there was a party who didn't respect
organizational constitution. One party took away the other's
territory by force. That was premanism. It has the same substance
as grassroots premanism: the use of force as well as the breaking
of the law to get something.

Premanism is now fashionable. It has proven itself to be able
to function well where the so-called formal institutions fail to
do so.

Q: Is there anything we can do to lessen "premanism"?

A; Yes, but the community has to trust the law as well as its
credibility. Law enforcement is needed to create such an
atmosphere. These are the minimum requirements. If they don't
exist, we won't be able to do anything about premanism.

People tend to seek the most secure way (of protecting their
interests). Premanism is basically the result of an adaptation
process. Either choice made by the community is nothing but an
effort of survival to a certain persevered pattern of life.

Premanism is not isolated to big cities and the modern era.
It's a process which has passed throughout the ages. Javanese
society, for example, has experienced banditry since the colonial
era. It appeared as the result of a survival struggle. That's why
Javanese culture knows the so-called kecu (bandits).

Q: Does it mean that "premanism" cannot be destroyed?

A: It certainly can but only if the constitutional law
functions well. Again, here we have the problem of the lack of
legal officers, both in quality and quantity.

Q: Isn't there something more practical to be applied right
away?

A: No, because what we are facing is social banditry. Banditry
on a small scale like extortion in markets or streets and
banditry at higher levels of community either in economics or in
politics have colored our daily lives. What happened in Tanah
Abang market recently provides a picture of how social banditry
has been so phenomenal in our society.

In other words, what we have to do is eliminate all the
deviation, which emerges either institutionally, structurally or
culturally. Banditry is mostly caused by unfair or pressing
social structure.

A good social structure guarantees success for those who
strive hard. Ours doesn't seem so. Success is more ascribed
rather than achieved. Success is more likely to come through
nepotism. It's understandable, therefore, if people then think
that banditry is the right rule of the game. Corruption, for
example, is nothing but another form of banditry, thus premanism.

Q: What about cultural values?

A: Cultural values function as a guidance of acts and
behavior. Community respects values which manifest themselves in
the form of norms. Now there is a disharmony between norms and
values. We have, for example, the value of unity and deliberation
for agreement. In fact, our daily life doesn't seem to reflect
it. (swa)

Hotman M. Siahaan is a lecturer in social sciences at
Airlangga University, Surabaya.