Reforms in Jakarta means license to kill

By Joko E.H. Anwar

JAKARTA (JP): The capital this year witnessed a growing number of people, including those who call themselves well-educated, who were willing or even keen to beat, torture and burn other human beings to death.

They claimed their acts were justified, saying that the wounded or dead victims lying in front of them were criminals and therefore deserved this kind of deadly punishment.

Police and hospitals in Jakarta and its surrounding areas, like Tangerang and Bekasi, have recorded record numbers of people killed by the mobs.

Amazingly, none of the perpetrators of these vigilante murders have ever been sent to jail. In some cases, the brutal killings and burnings took place in front of police officers.

Police say they failed to stop such actions as they were outnumbered. To arrest these people, the police say, would give rise to disturbances, such as the burning of police stations as has happened in some areas in Java.

When asked about their violent acts, most of the mob members argue that they did no wrong as they could no longer rely on the law enforcers, particularly the police and the judiciary.

Thus, they believe that by taking the lives of the (suspected) criminals, crime would drop in their respective neighborhoods, or at least the surviving crooks would think twice before planning to commit a crime.

The first such incident of this year happened only five days after New Year's Eve when a scavenger was mobbed to death by residents on Jl. Pelita in South Jakarta. He was accused of stealing clothing and a child's bicycle from a house.

The number of victims of the vigilante killings increased in April.

During the first week of that month, three men who allegedly tried to steal motorcycles were killed by mobs at separate locations in Tangerang.

On April 18, a suspected criminal was mobbed to death after allegedly stealing five gas tanks from a house in Jatiwaringin, East Jakarta. On the same day, a group of people forced themselves into Cililitan police station and lynched a 21-year- old student, who was detained in a cell for his alleged role in an auto theft.

By this stage, the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital had already recorded 65 people as being beaten or burned to death by mobs in the first four months of the year.

At the end of April, residents from Kedondong village in Mangun Jaya, Bekasi, fatally beat two men of a gang of four who attempted to rob a taxi driver.

The street justice continued at the end of May as a teenage boy was burned alive by angry Cempaka Putih residents in Central Jakarta after he allegedly wounded a bajaj (pedicab) driver after refusing to pay for a ride.

June may also be described as a month of mob violence.

Residents of Kukusan subdistrict, Beji, Depok, mobbed an officer from the Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) to death for trying to steal a motorcycle.

In Jatiuwung, Tangerang, a similar incident followed shortly afterwards while in Tambun, Bekasi, a 60-year-old woman was beaten to death by dozens of neighbors, who suspected she was a witch and was practicing black magic.

What was maybe the most horrible incident of street justice occurred on June 10 when five suspected muggers were mobbed and burned to death by an angry crowd near the Kampung Rambutan bus station in East Jakarta after an unidentified man yelled "thief!"

The crowd even cheered when they saw the men being incinerated.

By this time, the Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital had already listed 103 victims.

In July, the mob violence continued, starting with the burning to death of two people by residents in Palmeriam, East Jakarta, for their suspected roles in repeated thefts in the area.

During the second week of the month, six alleged criminals were brutally killed by mobs at six separate locations in Jakarta, Tangerang, Bekasi and Bogor.

The mobs severely beat all of the alleged criminals before one of pouring gasoline on their bodies and setting them alight.

In August, two alleged members of a gang were burned to death by angry locals after being caught red-handed loading stolen goods into a van in Kampung Sindang Resmi, Ciasihan village, Bogor.

September also recorded a man being mobbed to death after being caught in the act while stealing a motorcycle belonging to a policeman in Bitung, Cikupa, Tangerang.

In the same month, a 28-year-old man was burned to death by an angry mob in Cipondoh, Tangerang, for stealing a motorbike.

Similar cases occurred in October in Pasar Rumput in Manggarai, South Jakarta, and at Sukahati village in Cibinong with the loss of three lives.

In December, a man was burned to death for allegedly attempting to steal a bull in Leuwi Batu village, Rumpin district, Bogor regency, while an alleged 43-year-old pickpocket was mobbed to death at the Kampung Rambutan bus terminal.

Still in December, two more alleged crooks were killed by mobs in two separate incidents in West Jakarta.

Many believe that this frightening phenomenon in society will continue next year.

Such intolerable acts are a clear reflection of the failure of the country's law enforcers.