Jakarta – Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) chairperson Asfinawati has drawn a comparison between the May 21 and 22 riots in Jakarta, the May 1998 riots and the 1974 Malari affair. She says that there are similarities between the three incidents.
“If we look at the pattern it’s exactly the same, an exact repeat, so the structure that occurred in 2019 resembles or is identical with the pattern that occurred in the 1974 Malari and the May 1998 riots”, she said at the YLBHI offices in the Menteng suburb of Central Jakarta on Thursday May 23.
Asfinawati then explained in detail the similarities between the May 22 tragedy and the May 1998 riots in Jakarta.
First there was the dissemination of information, the truth of which could not be established or hoaxes, and this was disseminated on a massive scale to the general public.
These issues, she said, were intentionally chosen to provoke negative sentiments and public anger against certain people or groups in general.
“In the case of the 1998 affair the target was ethnic Chinese, now it’s LGBT [Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people], communists, the PKI [defunct Indonesian Communist Party] and so on”, said Asfinawati.
The second pattern, said Asfinawati, in both the May 22 and May 1998 incidents field operators were mobilised who could incite and influence the masses to commit certain acts.
In the case of May 22 yesterday, Asfinawati said that the organisers possessed the influence to provoke the masses into rioting.
“So there were certain people at particular points [in the city] who were placed in the midst of the masses who could incite the masses, who could carry out certain acts, and mobilise the masses”, she said.
Asfinawati continued saying that these methods are can only be undertaken if they have sufficient financial capital and are carried out by a person with special abilities.
Based on this, she suspects that the political elite in Indonesia had a direct connection with the recent riots in Jakarta.
“The actions which were carried out can’t just be seen from the actions on the surface, the actors on the ground, but there were [members of the political] elite behind it, there was the involvement of security actors within and outside of official structures”, she said.
Asfinawati then urged parties with the authority to put an end to the riots. She also hopes that the political elite in Indonesia will not sacrifice people as ‘martyrs’ for the sake of their interests and political ambitions.
“The Indonesian police must quickly uncover and prosecute the intellectual masterminds of the May 22 incident. It is the state’s responsibility to take preventative measures and deal with it, although it must be in accordance with human rights principles”, she said.
The protest actions rejecting the results of the April 17 presidential and legislative elections in front of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) offices in Central Jakarta which took place on May 21 ended in mass rioting which continued through to the early hours of Wednesday May 22.
Police say there were differences between the protesters holding the afternoon action at Bawaslu on May 21 and the crowds that rioted on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
Police noted that the afternoon protest action was orderly while the crowds which arrived in the evening provoked security personnel. This provocation then triggered rioting at several points in the capital between Tuesday evening May 21 through to Thursday morning May 23.
Notes
On May 12, 1998, security forces fired into a crowd of student protesters from the Trisakti University near their campus in West Jakarta, killing four students and injuring several others. This proved to be the spark which set-off mass demonstrations and three days of rioting in Jakarta which led to President Suharto’s resignation on May 21. Then Army Special Forces (Kopassus) commander Prabowo Subianto along with Armed Forces chief Wiranto were both implicated in the riots in a 2003 report by the National Human Rights Commission.
The Malari affair or the January 15 Disaster (Malapetaka 15 Januari) refers to student demonstrations and riots against corruption and the military in Jakarta during a 1974 visit by Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka. More than 200 students were arrested and many jailed for long terms. It is widely believed that General Sumitro – the most powerful figure in the regime after Suharto – tried to use the protests to remove Suharto from power. Sumitro was subsequently forced to resign and detained but never charged over the affair.
[Abridged translation by James Balowski. The second part of the article which quoted statements by Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan on the riots and economic impact was not translated. The original title of the article was “YLBHI Sebut Pola Kericuhan Aksi 22 Mei Mirip Kerusuhan 1998”.]
