It seems that crime is creeping closer to us lately. A couple of days ago one of Desy's relatives in Medan was murdered. She was in her mid twenties and was working in a kiosk that sold mobile phone when she was killed in a knife attack. The incident appeared on national TV and the murderer (a young male), having pulled the metal sliding door down behind him in order to conceal his crime, found that he couldn't raise it again to escape. He was found hiding in the ceiling. There are more details to this story that I can't bring myself to write about.
Murders, burglaries and robberies seem to be on the rise, although it's difficult to quantify these things. Suicides caused by economic stress are definitely increasing in the various regencies around the country. The only good news is that the FPI (Islamic Defenders Front) went a little too far last weekend and disrupted a peaceful demonstration that was promoting religious tolerance. As a result, there have been several arrests and calls for the organisation to be disbanded. These preman berjubah (thugs in white robes) have been causing trouble for years but the government has been too gutless to take an decisive action.
Even now the response to the FPI's excesses has been equivocal as is the current indecisiveness as to whether to ban the deviant Islamic sect called Ahmadiyah. There is no sign that the current weak leadership of the country is going to get better anytime soon. The only President to impress me since I've been here was Gus Dur but he was bundled out of office far too quickly as the result of political machinations. Being leader of a large Muslim organisation, one might have thought that he would be pushing an Islamic agenda but, quite the opposite, he was a model of tolerance and liberal thinking. Predictably, he's been highly critical of the FPI lately and supportive of Ahmadiyah's claims for recognition.
Murders, burglaries and robberies seem to be on the rise, although it's difficult to quantify these things. Suicides caused by economic stress are definitely increasing in the various regencies around the country. The only good news is that the FPI (Islamic Defenders Front) went a little too far last weekend and disrupted a peaceful demonstration that was promoting religious tolerance. As a result, there have been several arrests and calls for the organisation to be disbanded. These preman berjubah (thugs in white robes) have been causing trouble for years but the government has been too gutless to take an decisive action.
Even now the response to the FPI's excesses has been equivocal as is the current indecisiveness as to whether to ban the deviant Islamic sect called Ahmadiyah. There is no sign that the current weak leadership of the country is going to get better anytime soon. The only President to impress me since I've been here was Gus Dur but he was bundled out of office far too quickly as the result of political machinations. Being leader of a large Muslim organisation, one might have thought that he would be pushing an Islamic agenda but, quite the opposite, he was a model of tolerance and liberal thinking. Predictably, he's been highly critical of the FPI lately and supportive of Ahmadiyah's claims for recognition.
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