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)