Police Must Stop Pretending That Student Fights Aren’t Really Happening

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Police Must Stop Pretending That Student Fights Aren’t Really Happening
Yohanes Sulaiman | September 27, 2012

In light of the death of Alawy Yusianto Putra, caused by an attack by students from the SMAN 70 high school on students at SMUN 6, pundits as usual decry the growing violence of Indonesian youths. The usual suspects, such as absent parents, the media’s glorification of violence, bad traditions, peer pressure, and the lack of thorough moral education will be discussed and debated endlessly. 

There is, however, a missing actor in the discussion, notably law enforcement. 

Take a quick walk around the neighborhood and it is easy these days to spot children riding their motorcycles carelessly, without helmets. It is also easy to find three of them riding on a single motorbike. They even do this in front of passing police patrols, and the police do nothing to fix this. 

It could be argued that the police are simply overwhelmed; that there are simply too many people disregarding the law, and that it is impossible to arrest them all. At the same time, however, such flouting of the rules of the road does not happen all of a sudden. It happens slowly, with a few people going unpunished, and the others simply following suit. Before long, the community thinks of it as something normal, something that police don’t try to stop anyway. 

The police don’t crack down on this because of various reasons. The locals notice this. By not stopping these careless actions, people in the community think that the police simply don’t care. The end result, however, is that people no longer have an incentive to obey the traffic laws. 

This same logic could be applied to how the police handle brawls among students. It would have been impossible to stage such a blatant out-in-the-open fight, such as the one between SMAN 70 and SMAN 6 that is currently being spotlighted in the media, had there been police presence in the area in the first place. It would be impossible to have a standing tradition of open fights between SMAN 70 and SMAN 6 had the police arrested students at the outset. 

Part of the police’s hesitation to intervene in these fights might be from indifference, the belief that “boys will be boys.” Some might think that fights among students are simply a normal rite of passage for students. The view that seems to be commonly held is that it is OK to have fights as long as nobody dies. 

It is no longer uncommon to listen to news radio such as Elshinta and hear warnings from citizens to avoid a particular street because students from two schools are involved in a fight. What is fascinating about the entire episode is the fact that the news announcers are generally unfazed; more concerned about the status of the traffic than whether someone was injured or killed. What was even more interesting was the fact that neither the announcers nor the “concerned” citizens discussed the need to call the police to arrest those who were involved and responsible. 

Another reason that the police might not intervene in these matters is that many of the students involved have well-connected parents. 

VivaNews reported that SMAN 70 received Rp 15 billion ($1.5 million) annually in donations. Simply arresting those involved in the brawls might create some awkward moments for these high-society parents, who might then use their influence to force the police to impose a “slap-on-the-wrist” punishment, even though news reports stated that many of the students were seen bringing sharp weapons to their fights. 

Therefore, it is sad to say that in spite of Alawy Yusianto Putra’s untimely death, life will go on. 

Fights will remain a rite of passage for students, and police will continue to pretend that they don’t happen. 

The violence might slow down or even stop for now, due to the media attention, but as time goes on the fights will restart and the circle of violence will recommence. 

That is, unless society starts saying that enough is enough; that there should be a stop to the brawls. And the police should intervene to prevent and stop student brawls and arrest those responsible. 

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whistler

12:50pm Sep 27, 2012

If there is ano money to be made from intervening in these student brawls, then dont expect the police to step in.

By rights the police should step in and apply the child psycology that is required. I mean by that statement if these young thugs want to inflict pain on other kids let the police crack a few of the thug's heads together.

It is obvious that the paents have no sense of parental responsibility to instill a grounding in civic respect and duty in their children.

Is it any wonder that Indonesia has become a country with no ides of civic or social conscience.

benjol48

5:21pm Sep 27, 2012

Being policemen was not an easy job in Indonesia because too many bad cops . Law and regulations became blur , and if the police try hard to stand by it , people automatically accused the of wanting a bribe or extort money. As for students in this case it should not happened it in the first place, and gang style war between them so shameful for the nation . Parents sent their kid to school and become future leaders of Indonesia , knowing now there are just a bunch of cowards was really sad.

 

Yohanes-Sulaiman

7:45pm Sep 27, 2012

Thank you for your comments. I think we need to have a major police reform in Indonesia, to make the police emphasis a bottom-up approach, instead of the current top-down paramilitary system that does not address local problems.

 

DrDez

7:04pm Sep 28, 2012

I would suggest the reform starts at the top YS - The very top

 

 

devine

7:17pm Sep 28, 2012

DrDez, but the one at the very top seems to be overhelmed. He certainly is a nice guy but he obviously can't cope with the myriards of problems... not even a fraction of it.

Funny, some 20 years ago I though of what would I be doing as No1... so many hopes, so many visions! Now? Whaa... no idea how to clean up the mess. Unless I would be given Dictator's powers... sad... but true...

Valkyrie

7:51pm Sep 28, 2012

Yohanes...

I distinctly heard over a TV report that the perpetrator is "seorang anak pejabat."

Our son attends a public school and we had to "donate" a little over 6 Million upon admission into Senior High, a year ago.

I was very much against this payment for obvious reasons and wanted an explanation from the Ministry. I sent several emails asking for clarification. No replies came.

You know what? Parents had to sign a letter that this money was given on our own accord and the school did not influence us to "donate."

Yes, I submitted to their request for the sake of our son. I saw the fear on his face when I initially refused to cough out the amount.

I refuse to believe that the Ministry/Minister are not aware of what's going on annually. They have done abolutely zilch about curbing these activities.

The beauty of it all....the kids all know about it.

This country is going to the dogs.

devine

8:44pm Sep 28, 2012

Val; yes, very sad and 100% true! And nobody is ashamed at schools or further up. And our Pres sleeps and pretends everything is ok in every respect. Incredible Indonesia, once again!

I am currently having a serious fight against our local school. 70% of kids drive in and out of school without helmet! And all I got so far is "big smiles" of the head of school, like "what the heck this idiot wants"..."we are responsible for ecucation and not for traffic rules"... if you have a problem you should report to police... would you believe that!!!?

I am starting to loose all my hope!