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Indonesia’s vigilante mobs deliver brutal ‘justice’
JAKARTA, Nov 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – It was just after dawn prayers when the
caretaker at a Jakarta mosque noticed a man stealing from the donation box,
prompting a furious mob to beat him to death — for taking the equivalent of
$130.
The lynching was one of hundreds of vigilante killings across Indonesia in
recent years, highlighting a brutal trend driven by rising religious
conservatism and low faith in a corruption-riddled justice system.
Mob violence has also been aggravated by rapid urbanisation that brings
together strangers from across the Southeast Asian nation in often poor,
overcrowded neighbourhoods, raising stress levels and fuelling mistrust,
observers say.
The lynching had echoes of the grisly 2017 murder of 30-year-old Muhammad
al-Zahra who was set ablaze for allegedly stealing a mosque’s amplifier in
the hardscrabble Jakarta suburb Bekasi, as onlookers cheered and filmed the
scene on mobile phones.
As the electronics repairman pleaded for his life, insisting he was not a
thief, the frenzied mob poured gasoline over him and took his life.
His widow, who miscarried their second child days after his death, told
reporters that her husband often fixed damaged equipment — including
amplifiers — before reselling them.
Half a dozen people were sentenced to between six and seven years in prison
over the attack, as doubts about his guilt lingered.
– ‘Lack of trust’ –
Stealing from a mosque is seen by some as an attack on Islam itself, and
helps explain the eruption of such violence in the world’s biggest Muslim-
majority country, according to Heru Susetyo, a law professor at the
University of Indonesia.
“(Many vigilantes) are Muslims who aren’t necessarily that devout, but they
are easily provoked by these incidents,” he said.
“They are even willing to commit violence for the sake of ‘defending’
Islam.”
MORE/MR/ 1037 hrs
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In the neighbourhood where the more recent attack happened, one man said he
understood the desire to punish those who steal from a place of worship.
“(But) thieves should be caught and handed over to police,” said Sahanan,
who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
Few in Indonesia, however, espouse any faith in the graft-riddled justice
system.
“The main problem is a lack of trust in the authorities,” said Agustinus
Pohan, a law professor at Indonesia’s Parahyangan University.
“Those with power or money get special treatment. That’s why people refuse
to trust the police and decide to take matters into their own hands.”
Another factor is the disproportionate impact of theft on the poor, who
lack insurance or a cushion of savings — coupled with the relatively light
sentences handed out to many petty criminals.
– Culture of impunity –
Indonesia’s government does not release figures on mob violence.
But according to World Bank data, the country recorded nearly 34,000
vigilante attacks involving serious injury or death between 2005 and 2014.
The eye-watering figures — including over 1,600 killings — were based on
local media reports drawn from regions which are home to only about half of
Indonesia’s 260 million people, suggesting that the real numbers could be
even higher.
Sana Jaffrey, a University of Chicago doctoral researcher who led the World
Bank team, said a range of factors were responsible for stoking mob violence,
including poverty and a lack of trust in police.
But she rejected the notion that such attacks were spontaneous bursts of
violence by a wild-eyed mob, saying they usually involved an element of
planning and sometimes a powerful local figure.
In July, a gun-toting village leader in East Java reportedly encouraged
seven men to attack a suspected motorcycle thief with sticks and rocks before
his gasoline-soaked body was set on fire.
“The police only take action against vigilantes when the victim of the mob
does not fit the profile of a criminal and the family protests or when there
is an ethnic angle… and they fear escalation into a larger, communal
conflict”, Jaffrey said.
Although mob violence usually rises in lockstep with social and political
chaos, Indonesia, which has transitioned to stable democracy over the past
two decades, has bucked the trend, Jaffrey said.
“More institutional stability and more (violence) — these two things don’t
go together in most parts of the world.”
– ‘Cooperation and respect’ –
Suspected criminals are not the only victims of mob justice in Indonesia.
This year, half a dozen men beat and stripped a young couple before
parading them naked around their neighbourhood over suspicions the pair had
premarital sex.
In Aceh province, which is ruled by Islamic law, public humiliations by
citizen groups — and sometimes even police — have become increasingly
common.
A viral video in April showed a young, unmarried Aceh couple being doused
with raw sewage after they were seen alone — an offence punishable by caning
in the conservative province.
None of the young men who attacked them were punished.
Authorities say rising vigilantism is a grim indictment of Indonesian
society rather than a reflection of their failure to deliver justice.
“These incidents show that the social system isn’t working well,” said
Jakarta Police spokesman Argo Yuwono.
“We need to promote a sense of mutual cooperation and respect.”
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1037 hrs