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Restoring peace and order in Jakarta: A choice for Anies-Sandiaga

Jakarta is still busy with its own political polemic even after the city’s gubernatorial election

Mireille Marcia Karman (The Jakarta Post)
Bandung
Sat, May 20, 2017

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Restoring peace and order in Jakarta: A choice for Anies-Sandiaga

J

akarta is still busy with its own political polemic even after the city’s gubernatorial election. In six months newly elected leaders Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno will take over the leadership while people are still divided over the election results and a court ruling against outgoing Governor Basuki Tjahaja “Ahok” Purnama.

The Anies-Sandiaga duet can learn from past lessons should they want to establish peace and order in Jakarta, specifically regarding the option between using power and force in Tanah Abang Market. In this sense, the philosopher Hannah Arendt defined power in a democracy as people’s support for their leaders.

Tanah Abang, the nation’s biggest textile market, used to be a chaotic place where numerous preman (thugs) ruled by extortion. This was what Rousseau termed the “right of the strongest” where the strong ensure obedience by his subjects only by the use of force.  

In the case of Tanah Abang, the right of the strongest could be seen by the absence of exact parking fees and the frequent extortion of vendors by thugs to pay for security and unofficial permit fees. In short, there was no power in the relations between the thugs, vendors and visitors, there was just the right of the strongest.

 The condition changed in 2013 under then governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who decided that the only way to restore order in the market was through the presence of officials.  

Fresh from winning the 2012 gubernatorial election with 53.82 percent of the vote, Jokowi and Ahok — his then deputy — made some effective improvements in Tanah Abang, such as revitalizing Block G and moving vendors from the sidewalk to the block.

Jokowi also held many discussions with local figures, vendors and thugs to gain their support and thereby strengthen the governor’s power to establish order. Order was restored after the governor was elected president in 2014 because his successor, Ahok, maintained firm law enforcement in the area.  

The power of the officials, however, started to dwindle as the blasphemy accusation entangled Ahok in October 2016 and the incumbent ticket, Ahok and his deputy Djarot Saiful Hidayat, had to take leave to hit the campaign trail in the same month.

During their leave, the presence of power in Tanah Abang Market was soon gone as the street vendors, angkot (public minivans) and buses returned, leading to crowded sidewalks. The preman also came back to rule the area. A law enforcer even told CNN Indonesia that he let the vendors operate on the sidewalk, claiming it was their right to get more customers — further proof of ineffective law enforcement without power.  

The case of Tanah Abang Market not only represents the tendency of thuggery, the rule of the strongest, as a way of living in Jakarta. It also represents the condition of people living in the absence of state order.  

In Arendt’s political concept, two options are available for any state in a democratic arrangement to establish order: to convince and to force.

 Ideally dialogue is needed to convince subjects to obey and agree to certain rules. The ability to convince creates power for the officials while the use of force is only utilized to ensure the arrangements are upheld.

However, some leaders choose to simplify the dialogue process through the ballot box or representatives’ mechanism. Others just skip it altogether and use force to silence dissenting voices.

 What leaders often forget is that the use of force is impossible without a certain amount of power, and simplifying dialogue produces imperfect power.  

The Jakarta gubernatorial election follows the simplified method of the ballot box, which produces imperfect power. The 2012 election only gathered support from roughly half of Jakartans, while Jokowi had to lead the entire capital. Thus, he engaged in his signature blusukan (impromptu visits) as a way to convince the other half and by doing that saved his energy so he could use force only against those who radically opposed him. That is why it was completely reasonable for him to even talk to preman during his blusukan around Tanah Abang.  

Ahok, on the other hand, tended to skip the lengthy discussions with people, even when he was deputy governor. Thus ever since he replaced Jokowi in 2014, he used force more often to ensure obedience.

As governor, Jokowi may have taken a longer time to create visible change, but his moves were more suitable to introduce order to a society that formerly lacked a state presence. By gaining the trust of the people, the goal is to create order that persists.

Yet Ahok, who relied on the use of force, created a new form of preman-style officials, who needed to constantly enforce the rules on the ground, with the people only obeying as long as the officials kept an eye on them.

 The use of force made Ahok’s programs work faster as Tanah Abang became relatively tidier and safer. The downturn, however, came when his power was dramatically decreased by the election result and the blasphemy accusation.  

Anies and Sandiaga have a big task to not only mend the radically polarized political views after the election. They also need to establish sustainable order. Reflecting on the case of Tanah Abang, silencing dissenting voices through the use of force only lasts for a short time. Anies and Sandiaga may have won more than half of the votes, but like Jokowi they still have to convince the remaining Jakartans to align with their policies.  

If the supporters of Ahok-Djarot are afraid the new government will strengthen Islamic hard-liners, it is the main task of Anies-Sandiaga to convince them that pluralism will still be prominent in their leadership. If some Jakartans are afraid that current conditions will cease and corruption will flourish, it is the job of Anies and Sandiaga to show them otherwise.

Moreover, if the fight between opposing sides continues, it is Anies-Sandiaga’s job to convince both sides to compromise. It is a government’s job to be a mediator among its people. The establishment of order does not necessarily mean constant monitoring and use of force. It can also mean that every person supports their leaders and is willing to have peaceful coexistence by compromising with the opposing sides.
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The writer lecturers at the School of International Relations, Parahyangan Catholic University and graduated from the University of Indonesia and University of St. Andrews, UK.

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