Editorial: Queueing for death

Editorial
Source : The Jakarta Post

We share the grief over the 21 women who died and many who were injured in the East Java stampede, with their families, relatives and friends and also with Saykhon Fikri, the giver of alms zakat and businessman.

This is the culmination of bad experiences of this type of alms giving when it has gone seriously wrong. We are saddened to see this bitter reality, that over two thousand poor people had to fight each other to try to get hold of Rp 30,000 (US$3). Extreme poverty was the main reason for them to wait for hours and ignore their own safety, just to try to get this small sum.

These tragic deaths raise the question of why so many Muslims still prefer to directly distribute their zakat and will not entrust it to government-appointed Bazis (Muslim charitable donation boards). Minister of Religious Affairs Maftuh Basyuni admitted in a media briefing that Bazis still often lack credibility in the society. It is also possible that zakat givers gain personal satisfaction from directly seeing the recipients of their donations.

One can't help but be reminded of some of the incidents arising at post offices during the recent distribution of government-sponsored cash assistance (BLT) for the poor, despite the presence of police and security officers.

Offering cash gifts, not an unusual practice among Muslims, is a commendable deed in a country where the Islamic obligatory alms institutions have yet to mature.

It is an irony, that such a good intention on the part of Saykhon should end up in tragedy. Islam obliges the rich to share their fortunes with the poor, including during the holy month of Ramadan.

This is a practice Saykhon has carried out every year since 2001 during the month when Muslims refrain from eating and drinking during day time. At such a time individuals as well as alms giving organizations practice the teaching of zakat.

As the stampede showed, however, good intentions do not always end well. Although helping the poor is commendable, especially in a country where almost half of the population of 230 million is poor, according to the World Bank.

The Pasuruan tragedy occurred when thousands of people hustled and jostled their way along a long narrow alley leading to the house of the donor. The people came not only from the tiny town of Pasuruan, but also from outside.

The tragedy also reflects that there are huge numbers of poor people. They came to Syakhon's house in droves as early as four o'clock in the morning, four hours before the alms giving started.

Some kind of precaution had been taken by the organizers. Only women were eligible to receive the alms. This precaution might have been taken by the alms giver because two people died in such incidents last year.

There is nothing wrong with alms giving and the good intention to give. What is wrong is the way in which it is being carried out.

Especially so, since incidents of this kind are recurrent from time to time. On Nov. 7, 2003, four died in an alms-giving stampede in Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta, where each recipient only received Rp 20,000. On Sept. 28, 2007 one died in a stampede in the East Java town of Gresik, near Surabaya, when the alms-seekers received Rp 100,000 each.

Similar incidents happened in various places, with dozens of people injured.

On Oct. 10, 2007 two incidents occurred in two different places.

Three people were hospitalized after being trampled in Bantul, near Yogyakarta, when the local regent distributed alms of Rp 20,000 per person from the compound of his house.

Dozens of people fainted in the East Java town of Lamongan in a Muslim boarding school and at an orphanage during an alms-giving distribution of Rp 20,000 to Rp 30,000 per person.

As the incidents arising during the government-sponsored cash for the poor (BLT) propgram have also shown, there is an urgent need to build the culture of queueing in public. The presence of security officers can only assist in preventing fatal incidents.

There is nothing wrong with open alms-giving but more elegant ways should be explored to oranize distribution. Mosques can be halfwayhouses for alms distribution, for example. Alms can always be distributed to the needy, rather than having alms-seekers coming to a central distribution point.

Another way is to revamp non-performing alms-giving institutions in such a way that they win public trust.