|
 |  | |
|
 |
about Asia Buzz | more Asia Buzz
Law and Disorder
The irony of a diminishing military presence in Jakarta
By TERRY McCARTHY
February 23, 2000
Web posted at 10:15 a.m. Hong Kong time, 9:15 p.m. EST
So they don't shoot students in the streets any more in Jakarta. Does that mean the city is a safer place these days? Not by a long shot (so to speak). In fact, if anything, the danger of strolling around the streets has gone up, since the military have been sent back to their barracks.
| |
ASIA BUZZ
|
Asia Buzz: On the Highway to Riches
Who needs a desk and phone when you're a dotcom?
- Saturday, Feb. 12, 2000
Asia Buzz: Scuba Jiving
I survived, and maybe you can too
- Monday, Feb. 21, 2000
Culture on Demand: Snow Falling on Screen
Bytes of traditional Japanese poetry
- Saturday, Feb. 19, 2000
Asia Buzz: The Computer Ate My Homework
Distance learning via website
- Thursday, Feb. 17, 2000
Asia Buzz: Break Out the Black Ties
Hyping the industry with Net awards
- Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2000
Asia Buzz: Write, Like, the Experts
How to become an online columnist
- Monday, Feb. 14, 2000
|
|
|
ALSO IN TIME
|
Market Q&A
Each business evening with analysts around the region
|
|
ASIAWEEK
| |
|
It used to be that unless you were actually in a demonstration and the soldiers had a reason to shoot you (such as threatening the glorious rule of Suharto or the subsequent brilliant leadership of B.J. Habibie, aircraft engineer and East Timor liberator extraordinaire), the presence of so many men in green kept the streets relatively orderly. Now they have disappeared, and street crime is back.
| INTERACTIVE | |
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to TIME
| |
Taxi drivers have been in the news of late amid claims of repeated rapes of women passengers--many women in Jakarta are now afraid to go home by themselves in cabs hailed off the street. Instead, they get a male friend to drop them home, or go to a hotel where the taxi numbers are all noted so that the drivers can be traced in the event of any offence being committed.
Petty crime in the kampungs--the huddled communities of the less well-off in the city--has gone up, and with it has come an increase in vigilante justice. Last week, three men who attacked a truck driver were chased into a canal by local people, and all three drowned. In another case, a man who tried to attack a young woman was kicked to death and his body burnt. The police don't seem bothered by such street justice, and there is rarely any attempt to have the vigilantes reeled in.
On Saturday, the toll road into the city from the airport was closed off by an angry mob who were protesting being kicked out of the airport car parks. They had held informal jobs washing cars and doing other menial tasks, but the airport police were worried they too were involved in crime rackets, and shut them out. It took several hours for authorities to clear the road. A number of flights were delayed because passengers could not get through for some hours.
Of course the still-parlous state of the economy has contributed to the worsening of law and order. And nobody wants to see Indonesia pushed back under the boot of military control. But if the security situation continues to deteriorate, with or without the connivance of the security forces themselves, the city--and Indonesia as a whole--will become ever more open to those who argue that "tough" leadership is necessary. And Southeast Asians know all too well where that argument ends up.
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to TIME
Write to TIME at mail@web.timeasia.com
Search for recent Asia Buzz
TIME Asia home
| | LATEST HEADLINES: |
Click Here for the latest regional analysis from TIME Asia
|
|
|
