Indonesian Football Riot

Surely, this is something we never expect to happen in any occasion. Riot, violence, bloodshed, or anything else you might call it. Two last games of Persija Jakarta (that were held away from home at Yogyakarta) yielded two different fans riots. Besides Yogyakarta, riot also happened at Tangerang when Persita supporters got into a clash with local residents.

Twice in only four days, The Jakmania fought with two different Papuanese football fans. First on last Friday ( when they got attacked by Persiwa Wamena fans. And then yesterday, another Papuanese football fans who support Persipura once again attacked The Jakmania. This is intriguing. My first presume told me that it was not only about football. For such a long time, football clubs from Papua have been well-known for their hospitality towards other clubs in Indonesia. There has been no riot before except one when Persipura played Persija at Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium few years ago. Overall, despite the regional rivalry between Persipura and Persiwa, almost all of Indonesian football clubs do not have any problem with Papuanese clubs.

So what exactly happened? Let’s not say that this is  about politics because if it is, we’ve got serious problem here. Here, I’m going to try to explain some roots of Indonesian football riot. From the small research and observation I have made, I can conclude that Indonesian football riot is derived from socio-economic problems.

We must admit that Indonesia is not the wealthiest or the most prosperous country in the world. It’s some way off the standard of prosperity. Unemployment, high inflation ratio, and some other economic problems have led Indonesia into abysmal social condition. Low education, poor morale, and high crime numbers are some examples of Indonesia’s story.

We can relate this to the football supporters behaviour at the stadiums. With poor socio-economic conditions, people tend to unleash their anxieties by violence. They will think they’re strong when they do violence. Football spectators who come to stadiums in Indonesia mostly are from lesser class. They come from sub-urban, rural or slum areas around the city. Football is their only consolation where they can gather, form large amount of mass, do something reckless together, and so on.

This matter affects too on our football fans’ maturity. Maturity to accept defeats, maturity to accept any decisions made, maturity to give respect, etc. This thing is missing. When you lose a match, it’s not because you’re not good enough but it’s just because others have done something bad against you. Well, it’s fair enough to say that one of Indonesians’ “hobbies” is scapegoat-ing.

Another problem that cannot be taken for granted is political situation. It’s a common secret that there’s a tension in Jakarta – Papua relationship. Persija simply represents Jakarta while Persipura and Persiwa represent Papua. So would it be the root of the violence? Presumably yes. But one thing we should take as a note is that this political matter works only on special case like Persija vs Persipura. It can’t work to explain the case in Tangerang for sure.

Nah, so we’ve got a revelation..

Sumber : @yogacholandha

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