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