In East London, I’m standing in line. Those in front of me are protesting over the 19 pence inflation on the KFC mini-fillet burger. Little do the ignorant know that at the same time 23 women are being buried in the eastern Indonesian town of Pasuruan. On September 15 the helpless were trampled on and killed in a stampede towards a small charity cash handout of around 1.80 GBP (an amount not even worth a six inch Subway).
Watching a 28 second clip of the disaster on the BBC news website, it’s a tough pill to swallow.
Women, elderly, frail, afraid and broken, crushed against the fence. Thousands of tears and cries and hands reaching through desperately for the 30,000 rupiah each from a rich family household. It was a good deed with tragic results, as the wealthy family (traditionally donating during Ramadan as part of the Muslim system of Zakat) could not foresee or control the herd of people pushing to the front, running over fallen bodies and snapping backs of fellow villagers in the process.
For these impoverished and despairing folk, “Please line up in an orderly fashion” is never an option.
In the BBC video footage one mother reluctantly and despairingly lifts her young child over the tall jail-like gates in fear of the swamping wave of hungry and advancing Indonesians behind her.
Perhaps what’s worse about this particular picture is the vicious circle of blame going around, with minimal progress and no realisation of the more transparent issues of poverty and famine surrounding and deteriorating so many of the country’s people.
After the blow of September 15, the time-consuming and useless pattern went as followed; President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono blamed the organisers of the charity handout. Parusuan major Aminurrahman blamed the police for badly organising the distribution. The government blamed the people for not co-operating with the police. The people did not blame, but continue to struggle and kill each other. Between the squabbles and mass hysteria, the government and police authority’s responsibility to simply serve and protect the citizens seems a far and distant objective.
I call for eyes to open. “Would the real perpetrators please stand up?” is not a game we or the Indonesian people have time for.
While the country may have the biggest economy in Southeast Asia, more than 30 percent of Indonesia’s 234 million people (over four times the UK population) earn less than two dollars a day, and unemployment is around 8.5 percent.
At the same time, let it not go unspoken that the tragedy of September 15 was not a one-off, as other live music and charity events in the country have been tainted by similar uncontrollable riots and deaths.
Rapid aid and development needs to be the only objective in Indonesia. If unity cannot be found within the corporate divisions, then how can the nation expect its people not to react to charity and funds in the same way again?
It’s just another story, another section from the developing world’s diary that illustrates how much work still needs to be done.
As for us, we complain more than ever of our escalating food prices, but we know nothing of poverty and famine.
Yes inflation is a bother. But think twice before you say you’re starving again.
Words: Dwain Lucktung. Assistant editor, Ctrl.Alt.Shift.