Riots send message from the urban poor

Jakarta which was rocked by major riots nine days ago has slowly returned to normal. Political scientist Juwono Sudarsono argues that the tragedy that cost three lives, the injury of dozens and Rp 100 billion (US$ 42 million) in losses, signals the need for serious attention to the urban poor.

JAKARTA (JP): In the weeks preceding the riots of July 27, rumors had been circulating among observers, diplomats and journalists in Jakarta that a military crackdown on the order of Tiananmen (June 1989) or at least of Bangkok (May 1992) was in the offing.

Other rumors spoke of a repeat of the February 1986 Manila misnomer, "people power", when essentially middle class rivalry saw a change-over from one oligarchy to another. There were speculations about possible parallels with Yangon 1990, when a dissatisfied populace facing a military dominated government sought salvation from a prominent woman dissident.

In the end what they got was April 1992 Los Angeles-type urban mayhem. The Indonesian poor, whom the disparate democracy movements were ostensibly representing, became the very first victims of the rioting, looting and destruction of July 27.

There are lessons for all from the tumultuous events in the past week. For advocates of democratization, the most telling must surely be in recognizing the failure of organization. It is much easier to launch rambunctious rallies and mass demonstrations than it is to control the agenda of the debate over substantive issues such as corruption, business collusion among the rich or cronyism in the bureaucracy.

Advocates of democratization maintain that the present political system is redundant, stagnant and repressive. The reality is that the system has never been tried on the basis of sustained work in the nitty gritty of political canvassing, registration of members, holding meetings, keeping the books in order, or printing programs based on platforms created from meetings among caucus members.

Burdened by too much romanticism concerning mass movements, Indonesian politics and politicians have relied too much and too long on improvisation. Like other restive urban social and political leaders across the world, their rhetoric tends to be long and their follow through dismally short.

But the single most important lesson of the July 27 riots may be the one addressed to the government and its supporters among the urban middle class. That lesson lies in the urgent need to provide swifter, wider and deeper social and economic outreach to the increasing urban underclass, particularly those who have neither access to employment, the requisite skills needed to ascend the social ladder, nor to the credit structure that tends to favor the well-connected.

More than 48 percent of urban dwellers in Jakarta still have no access to potable water, primary health services and other forms of social overhead that make-up "social capital". Every year, more than 2.1 million young Indonesians enter the workforce, struggling for employment, social respect and personal recognition. For the vast majority of them, living in an urban environment increasingly impregnated by market advertising and consumer lifestyles, there exists a cumulative sense of severe deprivation, which is easily exploitable, motivating them to acts of desperation and destruction.

The urban poor constitute the single most important factor of future Indonesian politics. By 2003, more than 56 percent of Indonesians will live in urban areas. The strains on the city's infrastructure -- public housing, mass transportation, drinking water, public recreational facilities -- will be even more overwhelming. Social capital is rapidly diminishing. Pressure cooker politics can be expected to continue well beyond 2003.

The January 1974, the riots in Jakarta, which had wider national impact than the recent upheaval, spawned numerous calls for "a new leadership pattern based on circumspect behavior" and widespread appeals to the well off to adopt "simple lifestyles". It remains to be seen whether today's government leaders and the affluent middle class will heed the lessons to be learned from the steps not taken in the past 22 years. The next time round may not be another Los Angeles, but something more resembling Bangkok or even Tiananmen. And this may not have to wait another 20 years.

The writer is vice governor of the National Resilience Institute, Jakarta.