'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.