Thugs' paradise

It happened last November. I was out of town, and the children were asleep. The thieves jumped over the fence and pushed the motorbike and the car out without making a sound.' Rosmiati, who like most Indonesians goes by one name, said that several of her neighbours in the middle-class south Jakarta suburb of Bintaro had also been burgled in the recent past, and that she could no longer say the area was safe.

'But, at least I am grateful that my children were unharmed,' she said.

Others have not been so lucky.

A retired, middle-ranking navy officer in North Jakarta was killed by burglars on December 30. The day before, residents in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, woke up to the discovery of a headless female body in a rice field near their homes.

Seven murders involving mutilation were reported in the city last year, most of them the work of serial killer Verry Idham Henyansyah, also known as Ryan.

Gruesome crime stories are often splashed across the front pages of the city's tabloids, adding to a growing sense that Jakarta is not as safe as it once was.

Statistics reinforce this feeling.

There were 78 murders last year, up from 67 in 2007. This month, police spokesman Zulkarnain announced that crime had risen 12 per cent in just one week, with west Jakarta, north Jakarta and south Jakarta recording more than 100 cases each, enough for them to be regarded as 'red zones'.

'The most common crimes were violent, armed street robberies involving gangs of three to four people and vehicle theft,' he said.

These figures are considered the tip of the iceberg, as most crimes go unreported. Residents are not panicking, but they are taking a more vigilant approach.

Cynthia, 43, said she felt relatively safe, but that depended a lot on the area she was in. 'Some areas are dangerous, and I wouldn't want to walk alone there.'

Shirley Wibisono, who moved to Jakarta from Surabaya in 2005, recounted how she was assaulted several times when she first arrived in the capital, but said she had learned to read the situations and the city better.

Hendro Gunawan, 26, and Sri Sundari, 31, also stressed that certain areas needed to be approached with caution, while Richard Simons, an American in his late 40s and long-time Jakarta resident, played down the problem. 'Jakarta is still safer than the various American and European cities I have lived in,' he said.

Still, many Jakartans with the means employ private security to safeguard their property.

Experts agree that the crime trend is worrying and that more areas will become unsafe if it goes unchecked. They agreed that poverty is the main reason for the spike in crimes, but argued that there was more to it. They also said they were worried that it may get worse.

Aleksius Jemadu, dean of social and political science at Pelita Harapan University, said that with people losing their jobs and the price of basic necessities rising, many were taking shortcuts by opting for crime.

'This problem is likely to get worse as the condition of the economy deteriorates,' he said.

It is estimated that nearly 45 per cent of the country's 240 million people live on between US$1 and US$2 per day, and that 70 per cent of its 105-million-strong labour force works in the 'informal' sector.

As the global financial crisis makes its way to Asia, the Indonesian Employers Association has warned that half a million people could lose their jobs over the next 12 months. That would mean thousands making their way to Jakarta looking for an income and probably ending up in the overcrowded shantytowns sprouting up beneath the city's skyscrapers. From there, a life of crime is a short step away.

Beni Sukardis, executive director of the Indonesia Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies (Lesperssi), said: 'When talking about criminality, we also have to look at the preman [street thug] culture that permeates our society and the way the police operate.'

Ian Wilson, a researcher at Murdoch University's Asia Research Centre and author of a soon-to-be-released book on gangster politics in Jakarta, said the preman had been around for a long time, but their status had been elevated recently.

'Fractious local politics, inadequate law enforcement, and the driving forces of poverty and unemployment have transformed post-Suharto Indonesia into a preman's paradise,' he said. 'Preman can now be found not only in street corner gangs but also in mass organisations with thousands of members.'

Preman associations with political parties and radical Islamic groups have contributed to the thugs' aura of impunity which has hardly been dented by police operations like the one launched nationwide last November. The operation netted 9,085 alleged criminals in the first month but Dr Wilson said this figure was bogus.

'The police target urban poor more than preman. Lots of buskers, homeless people and sex workers have been arrested and then released. Only very few of the number flaunted to the media have actually been prosecuted,' said Dr Wilson. 'This is the fourth such operation since 2001 and it's not going to change much at all. The police launch these operations to ease public worries over rising crime, but the reality is that the public sees them not as an attempt to fight crime, but almost as a battle over the territory to produce revenue.'

He noted that Jakarta's streets had seen an increase in the presence of firearms and that drug-related crime, both by dealers and addicts, was rising dramatically.

Reliable estimates of the number of drug addicts in the country are difficult to obtain but the National Narcotics Agency put the figure at 3.2 million. Most drug users live in the main urban centres, with Jakarta having the largest share.

In a 2004 survey, conducted by the non-profit group YCAB, one in every 10 respondents in Jakarta admitted to using marijuana, two in 100 said they took Ecstasy, one in 125 used cocaine, three in 100 used crystal methamphetamine and two in 100 used other kinds of drugs, such as low-grade heroin. The real numbers are thought to be higher.

The experts agreed that the key to fighting crime was reducing the reservoir of poverty and unemployment, and in improving the image of the police.

'The public does not trust the police and, during the anti-thug campaigns, for example, there was a 300 to 400 per cent increase in complaints against the police, especially over the request for bribes or extortions,' Dr Wilson said

Public perception of the police as arrogant, corrupt and inefficient is widespread. Last September, when sworn in as the new head of the National Police, General Bambang Hendarso Danuri acknowledged that the force had an image problem and promised to 'fix the culture of the institution'.

Experts argue, however, that the low salaries paid to police officers make it difficult to eliminate corruption.

Police officers earn between 1 million and 2 million rupiah (HK$690 to HK$1,380) per month when joining the force, but they are often asked to pay a hefty bribe before being allowed to wear a uniform. A new recruit confirmed he had to pay 60 million rupiah to join and was expecting to recover his initial investment via illegal means.

The lack of trust between the public and the police also leads to vigilantism, with citizens often taking the law into their own hands. Throughout Jakarta, screaming 'maling-maling' - or thief - will call a mob to the street and lead to a savage beating for the suspected robber, sometimes resulting in them being killed. The fear of such punishment is seen as one of the reasons why petty criminals sometimes kill their victims, in order to stop them from raising the alarm.

The police argue that, with one policeman for every 800 of the city's 12 million residents, the force is understaffed - the UN recommends one police officer for every 300 citizens - and that they are doing what they can to stem the rising tide of crime.

Among the latest initiatives is a three-step programme that comprises raising people's awareness of security in their neighbourhoods, increasing patrols in crime-prone areas and taking a tough stance with criminals.

The city government has also been active, promising hefty injections of money into the economy to spur labour-intensive projects - mirrored at national level by the Ministry of Finance - while establishing a community forum intended to boost the role of citizens in battling crime.

And the city's public order agency is preparing for more work.

'Fighting crime is the police's job, but among our duties is assisting the early detection of dangerous situations and informing the police,' agency chief Haryanto Bajuri said.