Sitting on a Hoodlum Time Bomb
Groups of hoodlums with neo-tribal and other ethnic affiliations are flourishing in Jakarta. The big issue is generally money and they are often more than prepared to fight about it. The fear is that they could ignite something much bigger.
March 5, 2002
There is a bomb planted deep in Betawi land, as Jakarta is known to its native residents. They did not plant it and nor is this a stash of explosives left over from a time of war. This bomb is made up of the collective egos of various migrant groups who came to the capital seeking their fortune, or at least a job. Struggling to survive in Indonesia's murky capital, they have carved out little empires among the small traders and the marketplac
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