Stop the rampage
Every thinking person must be appalled by the anarchy -- there really is no other word for it -- that engulfed much of Jakarta yesterday. For two days in a row since Wednesday, the day following the tragic death of four demonstrating students at Jakarta's Trisakti University, the Indonesian capital has been in the throes of some of the most ugly rioting, burning and looting the city has seen in decades. Thursday's riots might well equal, if not surpass, those of January 1974, which many Jakartans still remember as the infamous Malari Incident.
In a sense, it may be true to say that it was Tuesday's deadly shooting incident at Trisakti University in West Jakarta that sparked the riots of the past two days. What must be clear to everyone is that the riots have had nothing to do whatsoever with either the student commemorations mourning their fallen colleagues or with their ongoing campaign for reform. What appears to have happened is that non-students have -- either spontaneously or at the instigation of agents provocateurs for whatever purpose -- used the momentum that the emotion-laden situation has provided to spark the riots.
What has precisely happened is something the authorities are currently in the process of investigating. Whatever it was, now is the time to call for an immediate stop to the rampage. In the meantime, we should ask ourselves why people are so easily incited to commit such acts of violence. Earlier riots, such as those that rocked Tasikmalaya and other towns across Java a while ago, have shown that it often takes only the slightest provocation to move people to riot. And when the frenzy erupts, it is naturally the most defenseless among us who are the victims: our own citizens of Chinese ancestry and other minority groups.
As we and other more learned observers and analysts have often pointed out, the kind of social equilibrium that we have maintained for decades has served well enough to preserve stability -- or at least an appearance of stability. But this was achieved only by burying feelings of anger, injury or injustice that have slowly, but surely, been building up in society. Unfortunately, in the then prevailing environment of relative prosperity, such well-intended warnings were more often than not ignored by the authorities concerned.
Under the circumstances, one could be inclined to agree with those who see the present flare-up of social and political unrest as a direct consequence -- an explosion as it were -- of those long pent-up feelings and emotions. Lamentably, it is the most defenseless groups of our national community that suffer the heaviest -- a reality that not only threatens our unity and cohesion as a nation, but is also certain to have adverse consequences for the economy and our society.
As more of our city's shops are looted or burned, many commodities, including rice and other basic necessities, that are already scarce could become even scarcer. As more people are deprived of food and other necessary goods, public order and security could worsen with all the obvious consequences that this brings for most ordinary citizens. The riots of the past couple of days could also affect the pace of this country's political development.
If a glimmer of hope can be seen amid all this turmoil, it is that almost every person of social or political importance in this country is now agreed that the key to overcoming the crisis is in bringing about significant reform. Without this, the problems that have for so many years afflicted our society would once again be buried, to explode once more at a later time when conditions are ripe.
Security and order must be restored, but not at the expense of necessary reform. Our system is simply no longer adequate for answering the challenges of the new global era.