Chaidir Anwar Tanjung/Lyndal Meehan, Jakarta – It is a truth (almost) universally acknowledged that outlawing gambling does not stop the practice but rather encourages those with the will, money and right connections to divine more devious means of turning a dirty dollar.
Such is the experience in Riau where security force personnel line up every week at the home of "the Boss" to take their cut of a business reaping billions of rupiah.
Since massive social pressure for the abolition of the state-controlled lottery, known as SDSB, forced the government to abandon the concept of legalised gambling in the early 1990s, the issue has fallen off the national agenda. At that time, Muslim groups protested that the practice was haram (unclean) while other groups focussed their objections on the fact that profits from the SDSB would be enjoyed solely by a clique of Suharto family and cronies who had set up the enterprise.
Ten years later, the "unclean" practice is alive and well and the profits flowing to little Suhartos in the provinces. Take the case of Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province on the island of Sumatra, south-west of Singapore, where the gambling industry has a long and lively history. Historical factors, born of it's popularity with vessels passing through the Sunda Straights from China, Southeast Asia, Europe and Arabia, and a diverse indigenous population has meant that gambling and illicit trade has always had a niche in society, much like it's neighbour to the north, Medan, in North Sumatra province.
In Pekanbaru, the locals do not feel compelled to cover up the practice but sell coupons, or wagers on the horse racing in Singapore, from road side kiosks and popular "hang out" places in and around prominent locations in town. Known as sie jie, kim or jackpot, depending on the day of the week and the races in Singapore, the winning wagers are redeemable following the publication of the race results in Pekanbaru's leading dailies, the Pekanbaru Post and the Riau Post. "Not bad, compared to a night when you don't work, you just sell coupons. And even better, you're guaranteed by the man," said one coupon seller to Detik yesterday.
The sellers were generally blaze when approached by Detik, even shocked to be the focus of interest. When asked why the police had not cracked down on the kim gambling, one coupon seller replied, "All that's already taken care of by our boss. And it's been a very long time since any journalists even asked about it."
"The boss" it seems is a local man named Dedy Handoko who has the local "law-enforcement" scene sown up. According to the research of the Indonesian Consumer Foundation in Riau, uniformed officers are seen coming and going from his residence throughout the week. What's more, their rough estimates put the gross profit of the gambling industry in Pekanbaru at Rp 20 billion (US$2.15 million) every week.
"'The peoples' money is swallowed up, the gambling bosses just get richer. It's a kind of chronic illness that's difficult to get rid of because our security forces are heavily involved," said Director of the Foundation, Andreas.
The nominal head of the Free Riau Movement, pushing for independence from Indonesia, Prof. Dr. Tabrani Rab, points the finger not just at the police but also at the local courts and Attorney General who are rumoured to be receiving bribes from Dedy. "I feel sick when I talk about gambling. The police, Attorney General and other law enforcement agencies can all be controlled by the master croupier so what can we say?" he told Detik. Despite seeking the transformation of Riau to an independent country, this kind of fatalism belies a deeply pro-status quo attitude which will no doubt leave the illicit industry off the political agenda in Riau and elsewhere.