Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Pasuruan – While Rp 20,000 (US$2.3) or even Rp 30,000 might be considered an insignificant sum, it is for that amount that 21 women – many of them elderly and widowed – died while rushing to receive a cash handout from a philanthropist in Pasuruan on Monday.
Many of the thousands of women vying for the donation from businessman Saykhon Fikri were poor, with some receiving cash assistance disbursed by the government to the poor since a rise in fuel prices began in 2005.
Murniati, a 55-year-old widow killed in the tragic stampede, reportedly came on foot from her village in Sawahan district, hoping to find a way to support her two children.
As her tailor's salary was not enough to feed them and finance their education, she regularly relied on help from her brothers and sisters, Murniati's older brother, Sulaiman, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. By pedicab, he brought her body home for burial.
The site of the stampede was ghastly, with torn clothes and sarongs covering the dusty faces and limbs of bodies grouped together in a silent crush. Many of the dead were too poor to have afforded shoes.
Pasuruan comprises a municipal and regency administration and is flanked by Surabaya, Malang and Trenggalek. The majority of its 1.4 million inhabitants live in poverty.
Survivors were reluctant to speak of the tragedy, with many seemingly traumatized. "I would never allow any of my relatives to do this again. I'd rather stay poor and stick to my job as a beggar," Natikah, a 65-year-old survivor from Bugul Kidul district, told the Post on Tuesday.
The Pasuruan tragedy is not the first of its kind, with many in a crowd fainting last year as they surrounded Saykhon Fikri and his family to receive zakat mal (oligatory cash alms).
During Ramadan, rich Muslims are obliged to pay 2.5 percent of their wealth to the poor as part of the five pillars of Islamic teaching.
The philanthropist and his two sons, Vivin and Faruq, have refused to speak to the press since being declared suspects in the incident. They are being questioned at the Pasuruan police office.
Saykhon has been widely known in the city as a Muslim philanthropist, with the family annually donating portions of its wealth, amassed since 1990 from leather, car and swallows' nest businesses.
Nur Syam, rector of the Sunan Ampel Islamic Teaching Institute (IAIN) in Surabaya, said Saykhon did not allow the local government-run charity to distribute the family's tithe out of fear the funds would not reach the intended recipients. "That is why the family distributes the tithe itself," Nur added.
Commenting on the tragedy, Bagong Suyanto, a sociologist at Airlangga University in Surabaya, said sincerity – not desire for prestige – should motivate philanthropists who wish to donate alms and tithes as a show of solidarity with the poor.