The Indonesia football tragedy

LAST Saturday, one of the world’s worst ever football tragedies hit Indonesia as a stadium stampede claimed 125 souls, with more than 320 others severely injured after police fired tear gas at agitated fans. The errant policemen were trying to quell the protests by aggrieved supporters of the home side, Arema FC, who had invaded the pitch after the final whistle in Malang, East Java, following their team’s “unexpected” 2-3 loss to Persebaya Surabaya. The dead included 33 minors aged 4 to 17. Many victims at a nearby hospital in Kanjuruhan suffered from trauma, shortness of breath and a lack of oxygen due to the large number of people affected by the teargas. Some sustained brain injuries. There was a doleful atmosphere on Sunday, October 2, as mourners converged outside the gates of the stadium to lay wreaths, and on Sunday night when they burnt candles in a vigil at a lion’s statue, the local club’s symbol. Their placards read: “Indonesian soccer in mourning” and “Stop police brutality.”

According to the region’s police chief, Nico Afinta, the situation became anarchic as the supporters started attacking officers and damaging cars, and the stampede occurred when fans fled towards an exit gate. Following the tragedy, the country’s president, Joko Widodo, charged the concerned authorities to thoroughly evaluate security at matches and expressed the hope that the incident would be “the last soccer tragedy in the nation.” He also ordered the Football Association of Indonesia, PSSI, to suspend all games in the top league, BRI Liga 1, until the conclusion of investigations. Subsequently, the country’s chief security minister, Mohammad Mahmodin, said that police personnel suspected to have committed acts of wrongful violence while on duty at the stadium would face criminal charges. This promise was reinforced by the national police chief, Listyo Sigit Prabowo, who indicated that the authorities had opened an internal investigation and interviewed 18 officers who had fired tear gas. He added that military personnel who were seen hitting fans would also be punished. Indeed, Ferli Hidayat, the police chief in Malang, was among nine local officers suspended on Monday. Indonesia’s human rights commission also plans to investigate the security mechanisms at the stadium, including the use of tear gas.

The head of the Asian Football Confederation, Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, said that he was “deeply shocked and saddened to hear such tragic news coming out of football-loving Indonesia,” expressing condolences for the victims, their families and friends. On his part, the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) president, Gianni Infantino, observed that the football world was in “a state of shock following the tragic incidents that have taken place in Indonesia”, adding that the incident was a “dark day for all involved”. Infantino has requested a report on the incident from PSSI, which has sent a team to Malang to investigate the issue, and Amnesty International, Indonesia, on its part, has slammed the security measures adopted during the ill-fated match, saying that the “use of excessive force by the state … to contain or control such crowds cannot be justified at all.”

To say the very least, last Saturday’s incident in Malang, Indonesia, was horrific. It is a tragedy that will take a long time to fade from memory. We sympathise with the people and government of Indonesia and hope that the survivors of the tragic incident will be given all the support that they require to be back on their feet. That is something that the government must not take lightly. In this regard, it is apposite to acknowledge that all the relevant agencies have given ample indications that they intend to treat the incident with all the seriousness it deserves. That is commendable. Beyond this point, however, it is significant that all accounts of the horrific incident agree that the situation could have been better handled by the police. Granted that the supporters of the home team had been unruly, but that does not justify the excessive force deployed by the police in this case. The police acted like a pacification force and contributed maximally to the needless loss of lives. According to FIFA regulations, firearms or crowd control gas are prohibited during matches. There is always a need to always be careful and cautious in the crowd management to prevent this kind of disaster anywhere in the world. The culprits must therefore be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Besides, last Saturday’s incident was actually tragedy in waiting: 42,000 tickets were issued for a stadium designed to hold 38,000 people. Worse still, as revealed by Mohammad Choirul Anam, a member of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights, only two exits were opened in the stadium. Yet, as the authorities in Indonesia know too well, football matches in the country of 275 million people have often witnessed violence and police brutality. The authorities must stem the tide very quickly. In this connection, the sports minister, Zainudin Amali, must go beyond rhetoric and implement his plan to re-evaluate safety at football matches, including banning spectators from stadiums where necessary. There is no reason to pander to the whims and caprices of unruly fans who cannot accept their team’s defeat under any circumstances. And for a country scheduled to host the FIFA under-20 World Cup in May and bidding to host the 2023 Asian Cup, the continent’s equivalent of the Euros, the time to act is now.

We hope that with proper mechanisms put in place, last week’s event will, in the words of President Widodo, be “the last soccer tragedy in the nation.” May the souls of the departed rest in sweet repose.