Terrorism - A Social Problems in Indonesia

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Terrorism as any act "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act. Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for a religious, political or ideological goal, and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians).[citation needed] Some definitions now exclude acts of state terrorism and some also include acts of unlawful violence and war.

Terrorism In Indonesia

Terrorism in Indonesia can in part be attributed to the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah Islamist terror group. Since 2002, a number of 'western targets' have been attacked. Victims have included both foreig (mainly Western tourista) as well as Indonesian civilians. Terrorism in Indonesia intensified in 2000 with the Jakarta Stock Exchange bombing, followed by four more large attacks. The deadliest killed 202 people (including 164 international tourists) in the Bali resort town of Kuta in 2002.

The attacks, and subsequent travel warnings issued by other countries including the United States and Australia, severely damaged Indonesia's tourism industry and foreign investment prospects. Bali's economy was particularly hard hit, as were tourism based businesses in other parts of Indonesia. In May 2008, the United States government decided to lift its warning. In 2006, 227,000 Australians visited Indonesia and in 2007 this rose to 314,000.

 

Radical and Terrorist Organizations 

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• Laskar Jihad (LJ). The LJ was established in 2000 in response to religious violence in Maluku.  It is in fact the military wing of Forum Kommunikasi Ahlus Sunnah wal Jammah (Communications Forum of the followers of Sunnah).  A few thousand volunteers were given military training in Bogor and sent to Maluku in April 2000 and were involved in creating communal violence.  It is more or less an established fact that LJ had the backing of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI).  This outfit is reportedly disbanded though there is no proof to this effect.

•   Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI).   The MMI is the country’s umbrella organization for militant groups, headed by Abu Bakar Bashir.  The MMI is lobbying to convert Indonesia into an Islamic state.  The Islamic movement in Indonesia plays its part both in the political and militant activities.  Bashir is known to have established ties with most of the paramilitary groups through the MMI.  A former vice president Hamza Haz, while in office, had admitted openly that Bashir is his close friend and had even planned to visit Bashir (while he was in jail).

• Jemaah Islamiah (JI).  Jemaah  Islamiah means Islamic community.  The JI was founded in 1993-94 by Abdullah Sungkar who was in exile in Malaysia.  The aim of JI is to have an Islamic state encompassing Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and the southern parts of Thailand and Philippines. JI has its roots in Darul Islam which had strived for the establishment of an Islamic state in Indonesia in the 1950s and 60s. Abu Bakar Bashir is alleged to be the head of JI and he is currently under detention for a not so serious offence though connected to the Bali blast in October 2002.   Though some leaders of this organization have had contacts with Al Qaeda there is little evidence to substantiate that it is the SE Asian wing of Al Qaeda.

Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group has said that it is a mistake to see Indonesian militancy as monolithic (Far Eastern economic Review- June 17, 2004).  She has identified several other terrorist organizations/groups other than Jemaah Islamiah such as

• Radical members of the Ngruki network
• Followers of Darul Islam (which fought for an Islamic state in the 1950s)
• Groups of veterans from Afghanistan and Mindanao training camps operating independently from JI.

Ijime (Bullying) - Japanese Schooling Problems

Ijime is a Japanese social phenomenon. It is often referred to as the Japanese term for "bully". Bullying is a big problem in Japanese schools. Japanese Ministry of Education reported over 125,000 cases of bullying in the 2006-2007 school year.

Of these 60,897 were reported in primary schools; 51,310 were un middle schools; and 12,307 were in high schools. By contrast there were 30,918 reported cases of bullying during the 1999-2000 school year. Of the total, 19,400 were committed in middle school; 9,100 in elementary school and 2,300 in high schools. 

The dramatic increases between 1999 and 2006 are at least partly the result of a broader definition of bullying that includes “cases in which a child feels her or she has been bullied” and the inclusion of slander on the Internet and on cell phones. 

Bullying victims complain of being kicked, slapped around, tortured and humiliated by other students. A common form bullying is placing garbage in the shoes of a victim. In severe cases, victims become virtual slaves to bullies who extort huge sums of money and beat their victims so severely they have to be hospitalized. 

Bullying has resulted in some suicides and is responsible for a large number of children avoiding school. In 1993, a bullying victim in northern Japan suffocated to death after being rolled up in a gymnasium mat and stuffed into a closet by his junior high school classmates.

In august until november 2006, five more children have killed themselves after being bullied at school. Both of the children who killed themselves in august 2006 had been bullied. A twelve year old girl jumped to her death from a high building after her classmates teased her for being short. A fourteen year old boy hanged himself after his classmates tried to extort money from him.

Suicide in Japan is not just seen as an easy way out. Traditionally, it was regarded as a responsible way to deal with a problem when faced with no other option. But last week, several schoolchildren wrote to the Education minister threatening to kill themselves because no-one would help them. He responded by urging students not to write to him, but instead to try find people they could talk to about their difficulties.

 

One survey found that 14 percent of children had experienced some kind of bullying. This rate is low compared to Britain, where 40 percent have been bullied. Japan, however, had the highest rates of students being repeatedly bullied. The rate of bullying has reportedly declined in recent years. Some educators are suspicious of these statistics, saying that many cases of bullying go unreported. 

Teachers often offer little help, sometimes even ridiculing children who are different. A 12-year-old in Osaka sued his teacher for standing by and doing nothing while he was bullied by other students.

Now, we must not forget that bullying is formed with a bully and a victim. When a bully and a victim meet accidentally, ijime can be the result. Not just a motivation of one side creates a chance of bullying. Each child who is involved in bullying has a psychological condition, which makes him or her amenable to bullying. It may be brought about by social, home or school system.

Every aspect of Japanese society can cause ijime. Therefore, it is definitely impossible to eliminate bullying. It is as difficult as to change the society itself, but it is possible to reduce the number of ijime incidents. We cannot help hoping to see a society where less ijime happens and children play more actively and freely.

Hikikomori - A Social Problems of Japan

Hikikomori

A "hikikomori" (roughly, "pull inside") is a teenager, young adult, or sometimes an adult into his or her 30s and 40s who will rarely or ever leave the home or even the bedroom for an extended period (months, years, or indefinitely). Most hikikomori (apparently around eighty percent) are male. However, the extent of the problem in terms of hard numbers is unknown since families tend to keep the situation discrete. A report by Rees for the BBC (2002b) gives an often-heard estimate of over one million. This is an astounding figure and in fact one that is difficult to justify.

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare defines hikikomori as people who refuse to leave their house, and isolate themselves from society in their homes for a period exceeding six months. While the degree of the phenomenon varies on an individual basis, in the most extreme cases, some people remain in isolation for years or even decades. Often hikikomori start out as school refusals, or futōkō in Japanese (an older term is tōkōkyohi. 

Estimates on the number of hikikomori defined as person who has been sequestered in his room for more than six months with no social life outside the home varies from between 100,000 and 320,000 and between 1 million and 2 million. Some come out of their rooms occasionally for meals with their parents or a run periodically to convenience stores for food. Some have lived in their rooms for 15 years or more.

 

Hikikomori Rooms

The Ministry of Health estimates that approx. 50,000 hikikomori live in Japan, about one third of which are aged 30 and older (Larimer 2000).

In August 2010, Oxford English Dictionary recognized Hikikomori as a word. A survey of hikikomori around that time found that in 23.7 percent of cases the condition began when the men were in their 30s and it was caused by workplace relations. Teens made up 33.9 percent of the cases and men in their 20s made up 38.9 percent. 

In general, the prevalence of hikikomori tendencies in Japan may be encouraged and facilitated by three primary factors:

1. Middle class affluence in a post-industrial society such as Japan allows parents to support and feed an adult child in the home indefinitely. Lower-income families do not have hikikomori children because a socially withdrawing youth is forced to work outside the home.
2. The inability of Japanese parents to recognize and act upon the youth's slide into isolation; soft parenting; or even a codependent collusion between mother and son, known as amae in Japanese. 
3. A decade of flat economic indicators and a shaky job market in Japan makes the pre-existing system requiring years of competitive schooling for elite jobs appear like a pointless effort to many. While Japanese fathers of the current generation of youth still enjoy lifetime employment at multinational corporations, incoming employees in Japan enjoy no such guarantees in today's job market. (See Freeters and NEET for more on this.) Some younger Japanese people begin to suspect that the system put in place for their grandfathers and fathers no longer works, and for some, the lack of a clear life goal makes them susceptible to social withdrawal as a hikikomori.