`Tempo' attack a sign of weak civil society

`Tempo' attack a sign of weak civil society

Prasetyohadi, Researcher, Jakarta

Hoodlumism is an endemic socio-political problem in Indonesia.
Yet it rarely becomes an open public discussion, as it has become
now. The assault on the Tempo magazine office is only the tip of
the iceberg.

Commuters on city buses know well that some street musicians
act like hoodlums, extorting money from passengers. They consider
Rp 100 or Rp 200 given to them an insult, prompting them to issue
threats of violence. In some cases, they board buses in groups
and force passengers to give them Rp 1,000 each.

"Donations" have long become "extortion", conducted openly,
without shame. Bus passengers' pity has turned into annoyance.
The hoodlums among the otherwise polite street musicians and
beggars are generally unemployed young men, victims to protracted
unemployment. The Central Bureau of Statistics in its January
2003 release said that, conservatively, the unemployment rate had
reached 30 percent.

In the hoodlum business, members must show loyalty to their
bosses to ensure their future. And the greater the number of
these would-be hoodlums reflect not only the increasingly keener
competition among hoodlums, but that hoodlumism has become more
rampant in urban areas. To rent a mob one only needs Rp 20,000
for each person plus transportation and lunch fees.

Practices related to hoodlumism have increased, especially
because life has become more open while proper legal practices
are still vague. Openness is enjoyed not only by the mass media
but also by other activities of assembly, including the
organization and transactions of hoodlums.

The police are not uninformed about this, yet they do nothing.
It is still unclear whether their inaction is attributable to
their incapability or fear. Reportedly, police have acted like
protectors of sorts to hoodlums as the police are cash-strapped
for their operations.

Hoodlumism is known to be an urban criminal tendency. Hoodlums
prey not only on the middle class, but also on the urban poor,
including sidewalk vendors, city bus drivers and workers.
Hoodlumism or the practice of paying money in exchange for muscle
is the most vulgar form of money politics, and becomes worse when
mixed up with drug dealing and weapon transactions.

The argument that hoodlumism can be tolerated to reduce
unemployment -- a pretext usually forwarded by the bosses of
hoodlums and officials backing hoodlumism, is unacceptable. Yet
the official public space, in which the mass media find
themselves, is now being incapacitated as hoodlums intensify
their underworld practices with the support of their established
allies.

Hoodlums were earlier employed as private security guards by
security authorities to help them deal with the peaceful protest
rallies organized by university students. In many cases, these
private security guards attacked the students. Such people were
also hired by companies -- with the knowledge of the security
apparatus -- to deal with labor protests. They also worked for
major political parties as their paramilitary-like task forces.

Understandably, there were many instances in which journalists
were subjected to violent acts by these people. They were also
hired to trigger riots like the one prior to the assault on the
office of the PDI headquarters on July 27, 1996 or the massive
mid-May 1998 riot that led to Soeharto's downfall.

As one riot after another broke out across the country,
hoodlums would always get jobs. The riots in Ketapang, Jakarta in
November 1998, in Ambon, Maluku in January 1999 and in Pontianak
in October 2000 were but a few examples. In the protracted
communal conflicts in Maluku that claimed the lives of thousands
of people, those practicing hoodlumism rode on the spotlight of
heroism projected by religious groups involved in the conflict.

Ironically, they called themselves the grassroots. Hoodlums
use their muscle to attack their enemies (political and economic)
under whatever pretext (the interest of the authorities, a
dominant political party, a big businessman, a military wing,
separatism, internal conflicts of media workers, religion,
ethnicity and so on).

In 1980, the Soeharto regime pursued a policy of hoodlum
extermination. Their dead bodies were bagged and dumped on public
roads. An estimated 8,000 suspected hoodlums lost their lives in
this way. The government pursued this policy to maintain
stability so that economic development could run as planned.
Fearing for their lives, these hoodlums joined the task forces of
the three government-sanctioned political parties -- Golkar, the
United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic
Party (PDI). They sold their loyalty to these government-made
parties.

Will this uncivilized method have to be resorted to again?

During the 1945 revolution for independence, young people,
amid the lawlessness following the end of Japanese occupation and
Dutch colonization, acted in a highly "revolutionary" fashion.
Anything associated with the Dutch was attacked and looted. Very
often, their victims were Indonesians. Some of these young men
later became "heroes of the revolution".

It is hard to accept that this black track record is part of
the current process of reform. Regarding the media alone, the
editorial office of Jawa Pos daily in Surabaya was occupied by
the task force of Nahdlatul Ulama, Banser, in May 2000. A number
of students, alumni and lecturers of the School of Sports
Sciences, State University of Padang, destroyed the office of
Bijak tabloid on July 7, 2000. The office of Radar Cirebon daily
in Cirebon, West Java was damaged by the Forum of Communication
of Cirebon City Community along with the task force of Ansor,
NU's youth wing, on Jan. 18, 2001. The organization of military
offspring (FKPPI) mobilized its members to damage the editorial
office of Waspada in Medan on Jan. 13, 2001. Then on April 2001,
15 hoodlums supporting the local Mickey Mouse gambling business
attacked the office of Sriwijaya Post daily. In Aceh, the office
of the Serambi Indonesia daily had to close temporarily after a
handmade bomb, reportedly placed by members of the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) separatist group in a waste basket in the
newspaper's editorial office, went off.

These show the effective and important role of the media, so
much so that even "illiterate" hoodlums have a stake in this
respect. The media constitute groups with power because they can
influence public opinion and attitude. The media may boost or
tarnish someone's reputation, or protect business and political
interests.

The assault on Tempo, a prestigious magazine, differs from
other similar assaults on the media in that this particular
attack has become a wake-up call for broader segments of the
community.

As hoodlumism is practiced in nearly every aspect of life when
it touches the interests of power and business, media workers
must mobilize forces just like the mobilization of the
democratization movement of the country's middle class from 1994
until the downfall of Soeharto in 1998, following the 1994 ban
slapped on Tempo, Detik and Editor. Of course, the mobilization
of the media workers must be supported by other groups.

Obviously, those usually harmed by hoodlums such as the urban
poor, the workers and ordinary citizens will support this fight
against hoodlumism. Without their support, a movement against
hoodlumism will be driven only by our middle class, a social
group which has proven not to be strong enough to change our
rotten social structure.