Then the big bang that claimed the lives of 125 football supporters (by official count, and counting as there are nearly 200 others badly injured) finally happened after the authorities disregarded and played down warnings of the previous small explosions of football brawls between supporters that already killed one or two people in a number of stadiums across Indonesia.
When Arema Malang hosted its longtime archrival Persebaya Surabaya in the Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, East Java on Saturday (October 1), we knew it would end up in chaos. But when it ended with the deaths of at least 125 people, people across Indonesia watched the tragedy in disbelief, even had difficulties to comprehend it.
Just after the final whistle was blown with the defeat of the host, some 3,000 out of some 42,000 spectators – while the actual capacity of the stadium is only 38,000 – rushed into the pitch to express their anger against the result, with the seemingly overwhelmed police officers firing massive teargas, leading to a crush and cases of suffocation, and the deadliest tragedy in Indonesia’s sport history happened.
Indonesians from across the archipelago were watching it in horror, channeling their anger and desperation via their social media accounts, with some expressing hopes that it could finally open the eyes of everyone, and some sorts actions to prevent violence within the sports can be taken.
But do we need to sacrifice hundreds of lives just to be made aware of how chronic the situation has been? Or using Bob Dylan’s words: “…how many deaths will it take ’til we know that too many people have died?”
And will the deaths of hundreds of people, mostly terrified bystanders who only tried to run for their life and only came to watch football and support their team in the first place, be enough to finally awaken the nation to fix the mentality problems of some supporters and police officers, as well as corrupt and incompetent sports officials and supporter organization elites?
We must clearly underline again that these four parties – mentally-troubled supporters, evil police officers, corrupt and incompetent sports officials and supporter organization elites – are responsible for the tragedy, among the deadliest in the history of not only football but the whole history of sports, and unless something is done to them, this deadly violence would not stop.
First the supporters. Well, they are actually not a supporter because they turned out to destroy their team instead of helping their teams. Some of the so-called supporters are actually thugs and criminals as they come to the stadiums with an intention to express their anger, hurt people and destroy anything in their way.
The nation must not treat them as sane human being. Instead, they must be medically or at least psychologically treated and barred from going to any stadiums in any games. There is a reason people like this are called hooligans in England. They are violent and like to hurt people.
If we learn a little bit about social psychology and the crowd theory then we should know to at least identify the problems and find solution. That’s why the best way to handle these people is for the authorities to form a special task force, comprising of supporter organization leaders, local and national sport officials, psychologists, sociologists, and if necessary psychiatrists, and police detectives. They would identify violent gangs inside the supporter organization – in this case Aremania – and isolate them from the rest, then monitor and provide them with psychological treatment if necessary.
Many have noted that these people actually come from poor families who have nothing to lose and nothing to do for a living, and express their anger for their suffering they experience in the real life, and that football is the only space they feel meaningful. Well, it seems clear that it’s a general social and economic problem living in Indonesia, and the solution, at least in the long run, is clear: give them jobs.
But Indonesia has nearly 30 million people living in poverty. They work hard and stay out of trouble and never commit a crime or inflict injuries to other people. So, these people obviously need treatment.
But for far too long, these people have been ignored, with the government hoping this problem would ultimately go away by itself. No, it’s not, and it’s time to do something about it before people die again.
And then the police. We have lost words of describing how bad Indonesian police are – from incompetency, corruption, violence to murdering people they supposed to be protecting. Just look at what Inso. Gen. Ferdy Sambo has done: Killing people. How on earth you fire teargas indiscriminately within a stadium, sparking panicky, chaos and suffocating people to death? Many people died because they run out of oxygen and of stampede.
It’s clear that they don’t know or don’t care that a regulation of the FIFA, the world’s football governing body, strongly forbid the use of teargas inside the stadium, and could they act to calm people and isolate those who create problems instead of just doing the easiest way.
But what did they care? They have history of using excessive force against protesters regardless of the consequences, and it’s the only way they know.
Then the sports officials and organizers. Clearly, it’s profits and money they are after. The fact that they sold 42,000 tickets and they know well capacity of the stadium is only 38,000 show their greed. But these local sports officials and organizers are hardly alone. They have to send money to the central office to be able to continue getting the right to organize events of the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI), which actually received at least 50 billion rupiahs annually for its operation. PSSI has been rocked by a number of corruption cases in the past. While PSSI clearly needs a revolution, the country’s ministry of sports has been successively led by incompetent and corrupt figures.
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The fact that they have ignored the cases of violent supporters and supporter brawls shows their morality and indifferent mentality toward the real problems of the sports: if they can’t squeeze money out of a problem, why care?
Last but not least, sadly, supporter organizations which should become medium for supporter to gather and meet each other, and can be used to “educate” and them have been used merely as political vehicle for popularity by its elites. More and more politicians and business people utilize these organizations for their goals, manipulating thousands, even millions of fanatic supporters, for their own good.
It’s a tough task going forward for Indonesia’s football and sports in general. Something must be done because the problems will not go away by itself. It must be done quickly before the next tragedy happens again.