The rape of a 35-year-old woman in a public transport vehicle on December 14 was the latest in a spate of acts of violence against women that marred the public order and security situation in urban areas in Indonesia in 2011.
In the December 14 incident, the victim was a vegetable vendor who boarded a public M26 minivan at 4 in the morning to go home after selling her goods in a marketplace. But not long thereafter she ended up being raped by four men in the car.
The woman shouted for help but nobody came to her help. The rapists then struck her left shoulder with a machete and dumped her on a roadside in the Cikeas area in Bogor, West Java. Haryadi Santoso, the husband of the woman, later urged the police to immediately arrest the perpetrators who have so far remained at large.
"The police must not fail to catch the bastards," Haryadi said with bitter anger in his voice at his home in Depok, West Java, on Tuesday
He said his wife’s physical condition was gradually improving but she was still traumatized. It is to be hoped the criminal outrage that befell the mother of two on December 14, 2011 will be the last to happen this year.
Early in January 2011, a female employee, working in a company in the Sudirman business district in Jakarta, was sexually harassed by 10 men in a commuter train from Pancasila University to Tanah Abang station. One of the train passengers said that although the poor woman shouted for help, nobody dared to come to her rescue.
Since then the government and law enforcing authorities made efforts to prevent the similar incident from happening again but that was shattered by the rape and killing of Livia Pavita Soelistyo, a female student of Bina Nusantara University in West Jakarta, who was on her way home from campus on a public transport in August 2011.
Before being raped by several men including the driver and some other passengers of that public transport, Livia had gone missing since August 16, 2011, and her body was eventually found dumped in a field in Casauk, Tangerang, Banten, five days after. Efforts to avert the crime in public transport were in vain when a month later on September 1, a 27-year old woman was gang-raped by four men on a city transport in South Jakarta.
South Jakarta police have caught two of the rapists but the other two were still at large. Evy, another university student was also sexually abused in a Transjakarta bus from Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to Harmony, Central Jakarta in September.
Then on October 8, 2011 a 38-year-old babysitter was also raped in a secluded park in East Jakarta by a city transport driver. According to Jakarta police data, 40 rape cases have been taking place in Jakarta and its buffer cities of Depok, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi and more than 3700 reported incidents across Indonesia in 2011.
But it is commonly known that more incidents go unreported, and from day to day the number is increasing. Rape incidents this year have prompted authorities to crack down on public transport drivers without uniforms or identity cards.
Crime in public transport has been increasing rapidly in 2011 that it becomes dangerous to go from one place to another in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (Jabodetabek). In doubt and fear, people get on public transport as though some sinister, supernatural force were let loose.
Public transport in Jabodetabek seems to have turned into a jungle of terror, robbery with violence, sexual harassment, rape, anesthetization, hypnotism, and even death. Meanwhile, criminologist from state University of Indonesia Adrianus Meliala said sexual harassment and rapes had occurred in public transports with weak control.
And according to National Commission for Women’s Affairs, there have been more than 100,000 cases of violence against women so far this year in Indonesia, 4 percent of which were rape cases. Again, Adrianus said, "Rapes are the peak of smaller incidents in public transport such as sexual harassment, pickpocketing, cheating and others."
In view of that, he said the government had to increase its supervision on public transport. Therefore Jakarta police would gather public transport operators following recent cases of sexual harassment, robbery, and rape in the public transport vehicles.
"We will counsel them so that they will not entrust their vehicles to illegal drivers," Jakarta Metropolitan Police Command director for community supervision Senior Commissioner Erwin Usman said in September. He said operators of public transport vehicles must have responsibility and monitor their drivers.
He said the police would give them counseling and directives so that they would no longer hire drivers who are not competent such as not possessing a driving license as an example. Erwin added that he would also instruct police officers at resort and sector police commands to conduct counseling for women who use public transport from work at night due to potential crimes that may happen to them.
"Women who return from work by public transport should better not go alone."
He said the women also need to memorize the characteristics or identities of the public transport they used and when crimes occurred on them, they could report immediately to the nearest police stations. Meanwhile, Woman’s Affairs and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar has called on the law enforcers to take the firmest possible action against rapists for a deterrent effect.
"I hope for the firmest possible law enforcement against perpetrators of rape in order to create a deterrent effect," Linda said recently.
The minister expressed hope that there should be the best possible solution to the case by among others prohibiting public transport from using dark glass in addition for the authority to provide security on public transport.
"But for the public transport to use dark glass is not the primary solution to rape case because it is the matter of moral character of the individuals," Linda said.
The woman’s affairs minister also expressed a tremendous deep concern from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and urged the National Police to immediately complete the investigation into the crime of rape and sexual harassment in public transport to prevent them from recurring now and in the years to come.
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