Street brawls: When to end?

Street brawls: When to end?

From Media Indonesia

I joined a course at Santa Lusia on Jl. Dewi Sartika in East Jakarta two weeks ago. When I arrived at Santa Lusia at 6:30 one evening, I saw a group of youngsters wearing junior high school uniforms loitering not far from the Santa Lusia building. Fifteen minutes later, watching safely from the third floor window, I saw a number of metromini buses speed past with smashed windows, hotly pursued by the screaming school children. Shortly afterwards, a young classmate of mine arrived. He was fortunate enough to have escaped the teenage street violence by the skin of his teeth. He told us that he saw a woman bleeding, injured by stones pelted at the metrominis by the youngsters. The violence was the fifth such outbreak I have witnessed in the two weeks I have been studying at Santa Lusia. Many other similar incidents must surely be happening all across the capital.

I understand that our society's decadence during the 32 years of Soeharto's rule is responsible for these youngsters' unruly behavior. I always ask myself what I can do to stop street violence, which I believe is a pathetic social phenomenon. However, it is as good as useless to contact the police and ask them to stop violence breaking out when you see a likely mob of youngsters hanging about. It is also completely useless to call the police once violence has actually broken out. Traffic congestion is always such that virtually no vehicles, including those belonging to the security forces, can get near to the scene.

These youngsters need to be given useful activities to occupy their minds, but rampant corruption has left the government without the means to provide the necessary facilities. Firm legal action is also difficult to take against these brutal youngsters because usually there is the inconceivable factor as a constraint. Providing these youngsters with a legal, religious and moral education would be quite absurd because all around us, practices abound that go against morality, the law and religious teachings.

What will this country end up like if it is allowed to wallow in this sort of decadence for too long a period of time? When will there be an end to all these street brawls, especially now that such brawls also involve more senior members of the community in certain neighborhoods? It is time, really, that we reflected seriously upon this phenomenon in the hope that we may find ways to maintain security and peace in our community life.

LISA A.P.

Jakarta