The Bandung riot

Why did the Bandung riot happen, if the motive was merely an ordinary accident?

As was reported, hundreds of pedicab drivers and street vendors went on a rampage this week. The trigger was the rumor that Ading Subama, 61, a becak (pedicab) driver, died after he was run over by a truck used by officers in charge of maintaining order in the city's streets during a series of raids. That was the rumor circulating. In reality, Ading did not die, although he did become unconscious for a while after he was hit by a truck that was used by officers.

The rioting in Bandung is related to two realities:

First, the growth of the city of Bandung into a metropolis. Bandung's growth at present is phenomenal. With the influx of capital has come an influx of migrants. In part, these people are absorbed by the informal sector and, as is the case in other big cities, they are finding themselves confronted by the harsh realities of urban life, including confrontations with officials.

Second, the order-maintaining officers and the people who are active in the informal sector find themselves placed in positions of conflicting interests almost everywhere. Skirmishes between becak drivers and street vendors and the officials are routine occurrences in any big city.

It is the combination of those two factors that make it easy for disturbances such as the one that occurred in Bandung to erupt. And this can happen in any city. The Bandung incident is not an isolated case but is a common growth phenomenon in any big city in Indonesia.

There is no fool-proof recipe for preventing a recurrence of such incidents. However, the frequency of the occurrence of such disturbances could be kept down if there were a clear concept of development for street vendors and others in the informal sector. That is to say, if we are agreed that the informal sector constitutes a good safety valve to counter the effects of the shortage of job opportunities, then it deserves to be treated with consideration.

-- Republika, Jakarta