Study finds business interests behind brawls

Study finds business interests behind brawls

JAKARTA (JP): A study by the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada
University and the public order office of Jakarta found evidence
of business interests behind the lingering student brawls.

However, the police reject suggestions that students have been
paid to invoke brawls for business purposes.

"Preliminary investigation of hundreds of recently netted
students have not found a single clue of a third party's role,"
Col. R. Indro Wasito, head of the Jakarta Police Command Center
for Control and Operations, told reporters yesterday.

Among the findings of the study on mass violence in Jakarta
were statements from a number of respondents claiming that they
had received Rp 15,000 (US$6.41) each to incite riots, the Tiras
weekly reported in its latest edition.

Riswandha Imawan, a professor at the university involved in
the research, noted that student brawls frequently occur in
strategic business areas, where property prices are high.

"A student frequently involved in riots ... confessed that he
often gets a reward for making a commotion from someone who has a
business interest in the area," Riswandha said.

Riswandha, who was not available for comment yesterday, cited
schools around shopping districts, such as those in Blok M, the
Blok Q area of South Jakarta and the Boedi Oetomo schools in
Central Jakarta. He believes that businesspeople want the schools
moved.

Riswandha, who is a lecturer at the Department of Social and
Political Sciences, said that police records of frequent brawls
in certain areas benefit certain businesses interests.

Study

"The records are used by the municipal administration to
determine whether an area is no longer suitable for educational
purposes. If it is considered unsuitable, the schools there will
be sold or moved," Riswandha wrote.

The study aimed at identifying patterns in incidences of mass
violence, which cover student brawls and protests by workers,
vendors, and land appropriation victims.

Yesterday, a principal of a secondary school in South Jakarta
confirmed the existence of business interests.

"I first heard about business interests before 1990, when I
was a principal of another school in Central Jakarta," the
principal, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post.

He said that he is convinced that the recent attack on the
school was also carried out by students who have been paid.

"We saw no reason for the attack. ... Some 30 students from
another school, located in Central Jakarta, suddenly threw stones
at our students during a sports session," he said.

His school, long notorious for involvement in student brawls,
is now among the city's top five schools.

"Investors do not dare approach us now, because our better
image will prevent them from making an easy deal," the principal
said. "They would be more likely to try approaching the mayoralty
or the Jakarta office of the Ministry of Education and Culture to
persuade me to make a deal for the land."

He said that the price of land at the school's location
reaches Rp 5 million (US$2,136.75) per square meter.

A teacher in South Jakarta said that the families whose houses
are close to a private senior high school had been upset with the
school's students, who are notorious for brawls.

"They once reported to the police their desire to burn the
school down, because they wanted to sell their homes but no one
was interested, as the area is considered unsafe," he said.

Netted students included at least three boys in school
uniforms who were discovered not to be students. Police have yet
to confirm their identities or to determine why they were wearing
school uniforms. (anr/bsr)