Youth groups support fight against 'preman'
Youth groups support fight against 'preman'
JAKARTA (JP): Three powerful youth organizations said on Saturday they supported the determination of the city police and military to fight the street hoodlums throughout the capital.
The three organizations are Pemuda Panca Marga, Forum Komunikasi Putra Purnawirawan Indonesia and Pemuda Pancasila.
Harianto Badjuri and Jonggi Sihombing, respectively the chairmen of the Jakarta chapters of the Panca Marga youth group and of the communication forum, which groups the children of retired Armed Forces officers, told reporters the activities of the hoodlums, popularly called preman, tend to disrupt security.
"We strongly hail the operation to rid the city of hooliganism," Harianto reiterated, adding that the Jakarta chapter of Pemuda Pancasila backed his statement.
The youth leaders urged the authorities, especially the police and military officers, to undertake the fight against the hoodlums carefully in order to avoid mistaken arrests.
"Carelessness in this fight will only lead to the arrests of innocent people," he said.
The city police and military officers vowed early last week to fight street hoodlums throughout Jakarta following the killing of one police officer and the wounding of another.
First Lieutenant Budi Prasetyo Utomo was stabbed and beaten to death by a group of drunken thugs near the Melawai Plaza building in the Blok M shopping area in South Jakarta on Monday afternoon, while Budi's colleague, Capt. Arman Depari, suffered several bruises to the face.
City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo and head of the Jakarta branch of the Coordinating Agency for National Defense and Stability Maj. Gen. Wiranto announced that preman are now the main target in the joint crime-fighting drive code named Operation Cleansing.
The representatives of the youth organizations advised Jakartans to participate in the drive against the hoodlums because creating security in the city is not only the job of police and military officers.
"Their participation can be in the form of intensifying moral education among our youth and maintaining security in their own communities," Harianto said.
Other supportive activities include steps toward eliminating social problems ranging from student delinquency to unemployment, he said.
Jonggi urged young people, especially the children of police and military officers, to join his organization to enable them to work toward solving the problems.
He said that his organization has a training program for unemployed youth and delinquent students.
He explained that most of the young people who have joined his organization's training programs are able to get appropriate jobs. Only a small number of them fail and become criminals instead, he said. (yns)