Rights commission backs war on 'preman'

Rights commission backs war on 'preman'

JAKARTA (JP): Members of the National Commission for Human
Rights said yesterday they supported the decision of the city
police and military to combat street hooliganism.

"It's reasonable for the police to arrest the hoodlums (known
locally as preman) because their activities have frightened the
public...(The hoodlums have) extorted money from traders, stolen
from people and threatened them with weapons," said Clementino
Dos Reis Amaral, as quoted by Antara.

Another member of the committee, Munawir Sadzali, a former
minister of religious affairs, said that the operation against
the hoodlums was not at odds with human rights.

Munawir suggested, however, that the authorities find out the
real cause behind the emergence of the hoodlums in many big
cities in the country.

According to City Police Chief, Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo, the
operation against the hoodlums will be extended to all parts of
Greater Jakarta, including Bekasi, Tangerang and Depok.

"Besides that, we are also trying to introduce preventive
measures in order to stop the appearance of such criminals," the
two-star general said.

Monday's attack on two police officers at the crowded Blok M
shopping center in South Jakarta, in which one officer was
killed, has prompted police and military announcements that they
will crack down on the preman.

"This is not only the task of the police. All members of the
community should also play a role in making this city safe for
everybody," Dibyo said.

Derived from the Dutch expression vrije man or "free man", the
word preman was formerly used by farm workers in the rubber
plantation era in North Sumatra during the early 1920s.

At that time the workers who managed to break their work
contracts with the plantation owners were known as vrijman, which
later became preman.

The plantation owners regarded the vrijman, who were mostly
local people, as lazy workers; compared with the contract workers
brought in from Java, China and India.

As the years passed, many of the preman acted as security
guards for the immigrant workers, who were frequently beaten up
by their employers. The workers, in turn, gave the preman free
food and drink.

The word preman has subsequently acquired a number of
meanings, including un-uniformed officers, ruffians, thugs,
racketeers and hoodlums. It also refers to people who gather in a
group and ask for money from pedestrians or vendors.

"Preman today refers mainly to street thugs," said HMY Effendi
Nasution, a former noted preman in the North Sumatra capital of
Medan. (bsr)