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.

Police name suspect for charity incident in Pasuruan

Source : The Jakarta Post

The police have named a suspect allegedly responsible for an incident that killed 21 people during charity distribution in Pasuruan, East Java, on Monday morning.

National Police spokesperson Ir. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira said in Jakarta on Tuesday the suspect was Farouk, the second son of the charity giver, Syaikhon.

Abubakar said that Farouk was named as suspect as he was responsible for administering the handouts, which has been a tradition of his family every holy month of Ramadan since the 1990s.

According to witnesses, about 2,000 people attended the charity giving on Monday, crowding an area not large enough for the charity seekers. The 21 victims reportedly died of suffocation and heat exhaustion.

The police said they were not notified by the Syaikhon family prior to the charity giving and suspected a lack of preparation as the main cause for the havoc that killed the victims and injured many.

"The penalty for manslaughter is up to five years' imprisonment," he said.

When asked whether Syaikhon herself would be named a suspect, Abubakar said, she merely provided the place and money.

According to Abubakar, 18 people have been questioned as witnesses and more witnesses, including expert witnesses such as physicians, would be questioned soon.

On Monday morning, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his condolences for the victims and demanded the case to be investigated thoroughly, bringing those responsible to justice.

"Silence is golden is no longer sufficient for such a matter. The public needs explanations as to what happened and we must prevent it from happening again," he said at the State Palace.(and)

21 Killed in East Java Stampede

By Wahyoe Boediwardhana

Source : The Jakarta Post

Twenty-one women were killed and dozens of others injured in a stampede in the remote East Java regency of Pasuruan on Monday as crowds rushed to receive a cash gift from a local philanthropist.

The majority of those killed have been identified at the Dr. Soedarsono General Hospital, where the injured are receiving intensive medical care.

Most bodies have been claimed by relatives for burial at the public cemetery.

Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred when a crowd pushed through a long narrow alley leading to the house of Saykhon Fikri on Jl. Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo to receive zakat (obligatory alms) for the poor.

"Everyone in the crowd was competing for the cash gift of Rp 30,000 (US$3.30) each," said 36-year-old Lusiana, explaining how the deadly stampede began.

She said her friend, Riama, was among those killed.

Lusiana said the cash handout was scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. But hours beforehand, about 2,000 people were already thronging the narrow space near Saykhon's house and mosque.

A doctor examining the deceased at the hospital said the victims died from being trampled upon while in a weak physical condition from two weeks of fasting.

They also had a shortage of oxygen in the thick of the crowd, the doctor said.

The air temperature in the province is between 32 and 35 Celsius degrees.

Lusiana said she lost consciousness for a few seconds after being trampled on by dozens of other women pushing forward to get the cash gift.

"I pulled away to clear my head," she said.

Another survivor, Liana, who traveled a long distance to get the cash gift, said she found it difficult to breathe as she was trampled.

The 38-year-old thanked God for her survival and for the gift of Rp 30,000 that she managed to receive. She said she would spend it to celebrate Idul Fitri, the festival that marks the end of the Ramadan fasting month.

Pasuruan Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Herry Sitompul said the incident could have been avoided if the distribution of the cash was conducted in coordination with local authorities.

"All those involved in the cash gift distribution, including Saykhon, have been questioned. They are still undergoing intensive police interrogation," he said.

He said the incident should be a lesson to prevent similar cases from occurring.

"We encourage the rich to donate part of their fortune to the poor as it is required under Islamic teachings. But the distribution must be well conducted," he said.

Pasuruan mayor Aminurrochman and regent Dade Angga also expressed their condolences, saying they would cover the medical expenses for the injured and the burial fees for the dead.

Chairman of the local chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council, Dhofir, also lamented the tragedy, saying Saykhon had taken the wrong approach in realizing his good intentions to help local poor people.

Meanwhile, Vidya R. Budianti, spokeswoman for PT Gudang Garam, the nation's largest producer of cigarettes, said her company would seek an effective way to distribute its Fitrah tithe to the poor in Kediri and surrounding areas to avoid a similar incident from occurring.

Pasuruan Police Chief investigated for stampede incident

Source : The Jakarta Post

The East Java Police have launched an investigation into a possible procedural violation by top Pasuruan Police officials in relation to a stampede that killed 21 women Monday.

The top officials are Pasuruan Police chief, deputy chief and head of Pasuruan's intelligence division.

"The three officers will receive harsh sanctions if found that they were careless at carrying out their surveillance and security tasks in Pasuruan," East Java Police chief Ir. Ge. Herman Surjadi Sumawiredja told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Herman said the violation was possible because the incident happened in an area only 1.5 kilometers away from Pasuruan Police headquarters.

"There was no way the police could miss 5,000 people gathering at the place," he said.

The stampede happened when thousands of residents gathered to receive Rp. 30,000 (US$3.21) from H. Syaikhon at a mosque in the city. Twenty-one victims died and 11 hospitalized from lack of oxygen and being trampled upon.

So far one suspect has been named, the son of Syaikhon, Faruq, for his responsibility in administering the handouts.

When people die for less than US$3

By Wahyoe Boediwardhana
Source : The Jakarta Post

While Rp 20,000 (US$2.3) or even Rp 30,000 might be considered an insignificant sum, it is for that amount that 21 women -- many of them elderly and widowed -- died while rushing to receive a cash handout from a philanthropist in Pasuruan on Monday.

Many of the thousands of women vying for the donation from businessman Saykhon Fikri were poor, with some receiving cash assistance disbursed by the government to the poor since a rise in fuel prices began in 2005.

Murniati, a 55-year-old widow killed in the tragic stampede, reportedly came on foot from her village in Sawahan district, hoping to find a way to support her two children.

As her tailor's salary was not enough to feed them and finance their education, she regularly relied on help from her brothers and sisters, Murniati's older brother, Sulaiman, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. By pedicab, he brought her body home for burial.

The site of the stampede was ghastly, with torn clothes and sarongs covering the dusty faces and limbs of bodies grouped together in a silent crush. Many of the dead were too poor to have afforded shoes.

Pasuruan comprises a municipal and regency administration and is flanked by Surabaya, Malang and Trenggalek. The majority of its 1.4 million inhabitants live in poverty.

Survivors were reluctant to speak of the tragedy, with many seemingly traumatized.

"I would never allow any of my relatives to do this again. I'd rather stay poor and stick to my job as a beggar," Natikah, a 65-year-old survivor from Bugul Kidul district, told the Post on Tuesday.

The Pasuruan tragedy is not the first of its kind, with many in a crowd fainting last year as they surrounded Saykhon Fikri and his family to receive zakat mal (oligatory cash alms).

During Ramadan, rich Muslims are obliged to pay 2.5 percent of their wealth to the poor as part of the five pillars of Islamic teaching.

The philanthropist and his two sons, Vivin and Faruq, have refused to speak to the press since being declared suspects in the incident. They are being questioned at the Pasuruan police office.

Saykhon has been widely known in the city as a Muslim philanthropist, with the family annually donating portions of its wealth, amassed since 1990 from leather, car and swallows' nest businesses.

Nur Syam, rector of the Sunan Ampel Islamic Teaching Institute (IAIN) in Surabaya, said Saykhon did not allow the local government-run charity to distribute the family's tithe out of fear the funds would not reach the intended recipients.

"That is why the family distributes the tithe itself," Nur added.

Commenting on the tragedy, Bagong Suyanto, a sociologist at Airlangga University in Surabaya, said sincerity -- not desire for prestige -- should motivate philanthropists who wish to donate alms and tithes as a show of solidarity with the poor.