A movement has been founded to oppose “premanism” or gangterism and street thuggery by radical political and religious groups.

The “Gerakan Anti Premanisme”, Anti Premanism Movement, was launched on 3rd July at the Legal Aid association building in Jakarta (photos). The movement has been formed because, as the leaders of it say, the government has failed in its duty to uphold the law and protect citizens from radical groups.

One of the attendees at the event, Sinta Nuriyah Wahid, the wife of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, and who is currently engaged in her own personal battle with certain radical Islamic groups, said that the prevalance of street thuggery by politicised groups threatened the integrity and unity of the nation. The government had to act, she said:

Don’t let people think that the government has already dealt with the problem of premanism because that will allow the problem to go on and on.
(Jangan biarkan masyarakat menilai pemerintah telah setting premanisme, karena membiarkan dan menyebabkan persoalan premanisme berlarut-larut.)

The hosts of the event, the Legal Aid Association, (Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia (YLBHI)), through the medium of their spokesman Uli Parulian Sihombing, said that in the year 2005 10 cases of premanism had been recorded by the YLBHI involving attacks on religious minorities, chasings-out or evictions of people or groups, and violence towards some social organisations.

He added:

At the moment thuggery is rampant, of both religious and ethnic overtones. They act violently towards other people in society. Premanism is a vertical conflict not a horizontal one between people, rather it is part of the government’s failure to uphold the law.
(Sekarang ini marak aksi premanisme, baik yang mengenakan jubah agama ataupun etnis. Mereka melakukan kekerasan terhadap anggota masyarakat yang lain. Premanisme adalah konflik vertikal, bukan horisontal antarwarga negara, melainkan kegagalan negara dalam menegakkan hukum.)

He specifically named women, labour activists, religious minorities, certain individuals, and marginalised groups as the main victims.