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Rent a mob

Source
Sydney Morning Herald - May 15, 1999

Indonesia faces its first post-Soeharto elections with fears of mob violence not just during the polls but afterwards, as Louise Williams reports.

Mas Damon has a mob for hire – 30,000 or so tough, young men and women, all with basic military and crowd control training, ready to do anything for anybody, so long as the price is right.

"This is simply about money politics; everyone wants to get some of the money," he says, white "hustler" shoes tapping, his fingers constantly adjusting the hair under his black Bugs Bunny cap.

"Personally, I hate politics; this is just a business; my people are just a product to be marketed," he laments, of the treacherous game he has been playing in Indonesia for most of his life. On the table are sample contracts for his mob hire business. Under former President Soeharto he worked up crowds for the ruling Golkar party, the only party ever allowed to win.

Now, he says, he will stack rallies for any political party that can pay in the campaign which begins next week, for Indonesia's first democratic elections in more than four decades.

For 30,000 rupiah ($6) a head, Damon's mob will scream and wave flags and banners all day. He wants open trucks, not buses, because they are easier to get out of if they are set on fire. The problem, this year, though, he says, is the insurance. Already one political party has baulked at the extra 20,000 rupiah per head he is demanding as danger money.

But, he insists: "The risk now is very, very high. Who will pay if my people get killed or injured in clashes? I had to sell a house once to pay for all the medical treatment for the injured in one election campaign, and the risk of violence is now much higher."

Already, Indonesia is reeling from a terrible, bloody year of mob violence following the collapse of the Soeharto regime last May. The Government of President B.J. Habibie is weak and illegitimate because of its appointment by the former strongman and its failure to usher in meaningful reforms. The military and police are overstretched, demoralised and underpaid.

Into this power vacuum has come the mob: without strong central authority, people are simply taking the law into their own hands.

On the streets of Jakarta, school gangs of 14-year-olds saunter through the traffic whirling chains and hurling rocks. At least 34 students have died in clashes between rival schools just this year. In poor slums, hit hard by the economic crisis, mobs have beaten to death suspected criminals, just because one of the neighbours has shouted out "thief", or have set fire to the bus stations in a dispute over a bus fare. In Ambon and Kalimantan hundreds have died in communal clashes which have seen neighbours draw harvesting knives and machetes on old friends. And in East Timor and Aceh, a new bloody chapter of the independence struggle is unfolding. School brawls and the "mobbing" to death of suspected criminals have nothing to do with the political competition among the elite for control of the next Indonesian Government. But the mobs have everything to do with the instability of the environment in which the polls will be held.

As Paulus Wirutomo, a sociologist, says: "Under the [authoritarian] Soeharto regime conflict and criticism were always suppressed. We just kept quiet because we could not express our conflicts. So, Indonesian people are not well educated in how to manage conflicts, and we don't know how to express our conflicts without making the situation worse."

Says another commentator: "Mobs are about power; by joining a mob people are empowered. The ordinary Indonesian people have been powerless for so long that this may not be directly related to politics, but it will affect the campaign."

Next week, 48 political parties will begin campaigning in a crucial election which must establish legitimacy at the centre, and stop Indonesia's slide.

Traditionally, political campaigns in Indonesia are about crowds: huge, rowdy, noisy crowds which take over the stadiums and the streets. Even under Soeharto's stage-managed system the parties clashed, even when everyone knew who would win. In pre-campaigning violence already 10 people have died and scores have been injured in fights between the supporters of rival parties.

Of the line-up, four main parties are likely to attract – or pay for – very big crowds. On one side is the remnants of Soeharto's old Golkar political machine – the only party with an established, nationwide network – which is widely believed to still be in control of a significant "war chest" with which to play serious money politics. On the other side is a very loose opposition, with no real co-ordination. The front runner is Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno, herself a victim of Soeharto's political repression and leader of the Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan (Indonesian Democratic Struggle).

Also very popular are two prominent Islamic figures, Abdurrahman Wahid with his New Awakening Party and Amien Rais with his National Mandate Party. Around them lie myriad new tiny parties representing interests from fundamental Islamic values to the ethnic-Chinese minority.

And outside the new democratic process lies the unknown "black forces", the provocateurs and spoilers who are believed to have fomented the bloodiest clashes this year. Wahid has publicly accused Soeharto and his old cronies, so bitter over their lost power, of playing bloody, dangerous political games with people's lives. A peaceful transition to democracy is not in the interests of those who have already lost.

Says the sociologist Wirutomo: "I am worried about the elections, we are coming into a situation in which there is a great potential for conflict. I don't know whether we are yet strong enough as a society to undergo this election safely, or whether we will face a new round of anarchy and chaos – it is very unpredictable."

Jakarta is a scarred city. Exactly one year ago, more than 1,000 people died in two days of rioting as mobs burned, looted and damaged vast areas of the commercial districts. Many of the buildings have not been repaired, and their burnt-out shells and broken windows remain, hanging over the traffic, a constant reminder of the devastating violence which swept the capital.

But is Indonesia really a much more violent place than it was in the past, or do new media freedoms just mean that people know more about what is happening? "It is both. There is more violence and we are more aware of it because of the free press," says a political commentator, Wimar Witoelar.

Political violence, he believes, is being organised by those bent on wrecking the democratic transition, but school brawls and mobbing deaths are part of a wider breakdown in social controls and norms.

The tensions which run just below the surface in Indonesian society are immense. Indonesia is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society. Outside the Javanese, Muslim majority lie hundreds of minority ethnic groups, many of them Christians, Buddhists or Hindus. Under Soeharto, millions of Muslim migrants from over-crowded Java were sent to the outer islands where they began encroaching on indigenous communities. Millions of economic migrants followed and serious inter-ethnic resentments were stoked. Even within Java itself lie tensions between those who benefited under Soeharto, and those who suffered in opposition. In East Timor and Aceh hundreds have died this year in worsening violence between pro-independence groups and supporters of Indonesian rule. In Aceh, in particular, local people have lynched scores of military informers and police and soldiers, so angered is the community over years of military brutality.

One Asian diplomat says: "This is not yet anarchy, but we are sliding towards the rule of the mob. In the long term the drift will be very damaging because no-one in the political elite – the Government or the opposition or the military – has any new ideas for how to deal with social unrest. The military just keeps shooting people in the back." A senior Golkar executive privately admitted to fearing for his supporters during the campaign because of the widespread anti-Golkar sentiment due to the repression of the Soeharto years.

An official of the National Election Commission says: "If one person dies it is already too many, but in this environment I would say that if less than 1,000 people die it is already a success."

But there is a positive view. It is also possible people will want to protect their first opportunity to vote in a democratic election in probably a lifetime. The last democratic polls were in 1955. And it is also evident, argues Wirutomo, that a process of "social learning" is already under way. A society that experiences so much violence automatically learns that the impact is very painful, both personally and economically, and so it becomes more difficult to provoke riots, even using professional "rent a mobs". "Are we going to keep on rioting, or are we going to learn how to resolve conflict in another way?" he asks.

Commentator Witoelar believes the establishment of a new legitimate Government will go a long way to defusing tensions, but like many other commentators he fears that the really big conflicts may come after the results are in.

As Wirutomo argues: "If the results are not satisfactory even if the polls are free and fair, which means the people are not satisfied, then they will want to protest. Indonesians know how to be forced to lose by an authoritarian regime, but they don't yet know how to graciously accept defeat in a system which gave them an opportunity to win." Says an adviser to the Indonesian Government: "The elections and political reform are just the beginning. We need an independent judiciary, an independent police force and affordable and accessible justice. Otherwise we'll just keep beating our criminals to death.

"There are so many uncertainties after the elections, the trouble could come then."

Indonesians go to the polls Election day: June 7. Campaign period: May 19 to June 5. Political parties: 48. Voters: 121 million, out of about 200 million Indonesians. Parliamentary seats: 500. There are 462 members elected through a national proportional system and 38 seats are reserved for the armed forces, whose members cannot vote. Main parties: Partai Demokrasi Indonesia – Perjuangan (Indonesian Democratic Struggle Party), led by Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of Indonesia's founding President Sukarno.

Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (National Awakening Party), led by Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid.

Partai Amanat Nasional (National Mandate Party), led by political scientist and Muslim figure Amien Rais.

Golkar, the remnants of former President Soeharto's political machine, which will put up incumbent President B.J. Habibie as its presidential candidate.

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