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Jakarta Post

New underworld: Brain over brawn

Nurturing chaos: Public minivans, street vendors and traders ply their trade in the Tanah Abang area in Central Jakarta on Wednesday

The Jakarta Post
Fri, August 28, 2009

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New underworld: Brain over brawn

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span class="inline inline-right">Nurturing chaos: Public minivans, street vendors and traders ply their trade in the Tanah Abang area in Central Jakarta on Wednesday. The lack of order and law enforcement has made Tanah Abang one of Jakarta’s most chaotic and filthy markets, where traders, vendors and drivers operate with impunity in exchange for regular bribes to local thugs. JP/Nurhayati

Gone are the days of muscle flexing and staging street wars to leverage power by some of Jakarta’s newly emerging mass organizations.

Hopping onto political parties’ bandwagons or hooking up with law enforcers and government officials are now the methods of choice
to get guaranteed backing for turf expansion.

The turn toward educated figures rather than notorious street fighters as patrons has made Jakarta's street organizations a more formidable ally for those who can afford to hire them for use in garnering political support in street rallies, sidelining opponents and providing security services.

The direct involvement of a serving National Police detective, Adj. Sr. Comr. Susilowadi, also known as Bang Ilo, as chairman of the Laskar Jayakarta (Jayakarta Warriors) group may serve as an obvious example.

Bang Ilo, a native of Riau, is currently in Papua for a short tour of duty.

"If we face a dispute on the street, our leader *Bang Ilo* always takes care of it," says Oding, head of Laskar Jayakarta's Tamansari district branch.

Early last year, the local police brought together all the mass organizations and ethnic groups in West Jakarta to hammer home the reality that Laskar as the new ruler, particularly in Tamansari district, where 60 percent of Jakarta's night entertainment money circulates.

Since that meeting, the group has grown increasingly powerful, unchallenged by any other.

Before the downfall of the Soeharto regime in 1998, the Pancasila Youth, which had the backing of the ruling Golkar Party, and ethnic Maluku gangs reigned supreme over the lucrative area.

Their influence faded, opening up room for the Betawi Family Forum (Forkabi) and Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR), as well as ethnic Banten and Manado groups to join the race for a slice of the Tamansari nightclub business pie.

"We're the biggest around here," says senior Laskar member Andi Kusuma. "Our membership increases by 10 percent every year."

With 2,000 members in Tamansari alone, Laskar also counts among its faithful those from splinter groups of the Pancasila Youth, whose personnel mostly moonlight in other new Betawi groups to make ends meet.

Laskar plans to expand into other districts by negotiating profit-sharing schemes with existing groups that already rule the roost there.

"Our approach is to negotiate with other groups to expand our territory," Andi says.

"We never resort to force."

Their job of getting the other groups to comply is made much easier with full police backing.

Oding and Andi won't say how much they make from guarding the Tamansari district, only that members already employed by businesses there must "voluntarily contribute" to the organization.

However, Adrian Maulete, chairman of the Jakarta Association of Tourism, Recreation and Entertainment Businesses, says Laskar and other Betawi mass organizations are a nuisance to the industry.

"There are too many of them operating in Tamansari and the surrounding areas; we pay dearly just to keep them at bay," he says.

With violence no longer the preferred choice of intimidation, many group leaders prefer to keep a law firm on hand to help leverage their business and political clout.

The street ruler of the Tanah Abang trade compound, Abraham Lunggana, more popularly known as Haji Lulung, is the senior partner of the law firm Haji Lulung & Associates, set up late last month to help accommodate his business of outsourcing unemployed Jakarta Betawi natives and those from other ethnic groups as debt collectors.

Brandishing a law degree from Attahiriyah Islamic University in Jakarta, Lulung is a Jakarta city councilor with the United Development Party (PPP) and a secretary for the Betawi Assembly (Bamus Betawi), which is supported by more than 100 Betawi organizations.

"The era of turf wars is over. Since taking control of this area *Tanah Abang*, my approach has always been brain over brawn in settling problems," he says.

"I also apply a community management system that prioritizes negotiations. That's why there hasn't been a large-scale fight since 1998."

Having started out as a trash picker coordinator for the Tanah Abang area in the mid 1970s, Lulung's close ties to the inner circle of then Jakarta governor Sutiyoso saw his luck change in 2000.

He is believed to have profited from Sutiyoso's decision to revitalize the Tanah Abang area in 2006, effectively ending the reign of underworld boss Herkules.

However, Lulung denies having been close with Sutiyoso, attributing his rise to others, notably the military and police - ties that stretched back to his time with the Panca Marga Youth organization, which mobilizes officers' children.

Lulung's grip on power is now being challenged by a consortium of three other noted Tanah Abang figures vying for control of the Tanah Abang money flow.

Another leader in the new mold is the FBR's Lutfi Hakim, who took over from the late patron Fadhloli El Muhir, a street fighter.

Lutfi has a degree in theology from As-Shafiyah Islamic University in Jakarta. He has overseen the establishment of two FBR law firms on Jl. Pramuka in East Jakarta and in the Cakung area of North Jakarta.

Under his management, the group has shifted its methods from intimidating businesses to outsourcing unemployed Betawi youth as security guards.

"The security service is fast becoming a side business," Lutfi says.

"A lot of us are running other businesses, including waste management, mining and printing."

Yorris Raweyai, a top Pancasila Youth leader and recently re-elected as a legislator for the Golkar Party, believes the management of Jakarta's street organizations is becoming more sophisticated.

"They've had to change the mind-set from one promoting violence to one espousing a more educated approach, or being eliminated by the law enforcers or the public," says Yorris, once the key financier of the Pancasila Youth.

"That's why their activities fall mostly within the legal boundaries, and why they need smarter, more educated patrons to be able to steer them into turning a profit while staying legal."

Yorris warns the days of such street organizations are numbered, with law enforcers growing gradually more stringent than ever, and the public in general no longer afraid of confronting the groups.

"There's no longer any permanent backing from law enforcers or bureaucrats, because the change in regime means a change in the rules of the game," he says.

"Even President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono couldn't keep Aulia Pohan *the father-in-law of Yudhoyono's eldest son* out of jail."

- JP/Rendi A. Witular and Andra Wisnu

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