F

ormerly notorious for being a drug-dealing hub, Warakas in North Jakarta has won the Kampung Bebas Narkoba (drug-free kampung) competition held by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN).

The committee announced on Saturday that the subdistrict was the most active area in the fight against drugs and drug dealers.

Committee executive Andi Firdaus said the judges had assessed the 26 subdistricts from five municipalities that took part in the competition based on four variables.

'First we rated the managements of the subdistrict organizations. Organizations are essential to accommodate drug eradication programs in neighborhoods,' he said.

Andi added that other variables, such as the development of a national strategy for the eradication of the abuse and trafficking of the illicit substance known as P4GN, the use of communication devices and public participation levels, were also considered.

'Besides the fact that Warakas fulfilled the four criteria, we unanimously selected it as the winner because of the residents' long history in the fight against drug dealers in their neighborhood,' he said.

Andi said Warakas was a 'red zone' in terms of drugs back in the 1990s and early 2000s.

'However, the residents united to form a joint task force to clean up their neighborhood from bad influences,' he said.

Tasimun Mudjiarto, a 65-year-old Warakas resident that pioneered the task force, said that the idea to intensively eradicate drug dealers from their neighborhood was born after residents became fed up with the drug dealers living there.

'People from all over the city  came to our kampung for drugs. Young people died from drug overdoses almost every week at that time,' he recalled.

According to Tasimun, there were around 80 drug-related deaths in Warakas from 2002 until 2007.

He said the residents then agreed to take stern action against the dealers who till then had been untouched by the police.
'Our task force raided the houses of the dealers and drug users every night,' he said.

He added that each neighborhood unit (RT) now had 15 task force members manned by religious figures, officials, parents and youngsters.

The 104-hectare Warakas subdistrict has a total 183 RT in 14 community units (RW) with 48,000 residents ' most of whom work as porters (at Tanjung Priok Port) and as ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers.

Tasimun said their hard work had paid off as the subdistrict now only dealt with few drug-related cases, mainly end-users.

'We are now employing persuasive methods to get the drug users to seek rehabilitation,' he said.

BNN chief Comr. Gen. Anang Iskandar said in the opening speech of the ceremony that the number of drug users in Jakarta was the highest in the country.

'We have four million drug users in the country,' he said, adding that it meant seven out of every 100 people has tried drugs.

The city administration revealed the number of drug users in Jakarta up to September 2013 was 492,000 or seven percent of the total residents.

Anang said the competition would motivate communities to protect their neighborhoods from drugs.

'We have to remember that those four million drug users cannot heal by themselves. We should help them,' he said.

Anang said he welcomed the city administration's intention to allocate its budget next year for the competition so all subdistricts could participate.

Cibubur in East Jakarta and Kalideres in West Jakarta, Galur in Central Jakarta, Malaka Sari in East Jakarta and West Pejaten in South Jakarta, won second to sixth place, respectively.