world gone wild
It was a scene straight out of a screamer screenshot--a burning horribly contorted body on the pavement, naked and melting as if it were plastic on fire. Except this wasn't special effects. This was real. The charred flaming flesh on the street used to be a living human being some mere minutes ago, wielding a katana, intent on madness and mayhem.
Meet the newest terror in the streets of Jakarta--the "begal".*
Two men on a motorbike descending upon you in a split second to snatch your bag, phone, lap top and whatnots is not a new thing in this city. But this time, a new element has been added to strike fresh fear into the hearts of even the most jaded pedestrian: a sword. Or, it could be a machete, an ax--anything that wounds, slashes and maims. They do not just grab your valuables. If you even as much as blink an eye in resistance, off goes your body part in a spray of blood and gore. Victims on foot are not the sole targets either. Motorbike riders have now become the main victims in this surge of violent bikejackings hitting the outskirts of Jakarta--especially Tangerang--in the past few weeks. What's worse is that the begals do not hide under cover of darkness. They attack whenever an opportunity presents itself, thereby taking away that false sense of safety that daylight usually offers.
The horrifying violence that brought things to a head barely three weeks ago happened a few miles from where I live. Four men attempted to rob a couple--a man and a woman--of the motorbike they were driving by threatening them with a sword. They didn't, however, bargain for the passenger's reaction. The woman fought back by grabbing hold of the blade! All this as the motorbikes kept on speeding. In the scuffle, one of the begals fell off his bike. The residents out on the street who saw the whole thing swooped down on the fallen begal and administered swift vigilante justice. They doused him with kerosene and set him on fire.
A few days later, word on the street went that the begals will retaliate from now on by cutting and maiming victims regardless of whether they resist or not.
Disturbingly, these are not the only tales of violence we've been hearing lately. With the plummeting value of the rupiah, acts of brutality seem to skyrocket in reverse. Two weeks ago, a young boy resisted a possible abduction just a few steps beyond his school's premises. A week after, attackers on bike hit one of my students with a pipe and gouged his arm with artificial claws as he was driving away from a classmate's house. Expats have been warned to be extra careful. We hear of theories; of organised conspiracies to destabilize and undermine the elected government. It is not safe, they say. The Jakarta I fell in love with, and even this new city I'm living in, which I used to find sleepy and laid back, are slowly changing faces.
I don't know what to say. I have no wise realisations that will give myself assurance or even an understanding of why people wreak evil on each other, or why they unleash so much harm on the world and ultimately on themselves. I do not see what is so important that's worth the life of an innocent human being or even one's peace of mind. But maybe I'm naive and looking at things from a simplistic--or worse--from an entitled point of view. Maybe love or kindness is not the answer at all? Maybe it's justice? Or, even as basic as rice and water? I don't know. Faced with the picture of a writhing man being burned alive, I'm suddenly tired of philosophical and deep thoughts. All I know is that in spite of all the ugliness in the world, I am fortunate that I have people who I love deeply above all things. And because of them I will strive to believe in and do all sorts of kindness in the hopes that the universe, somehow, will give back and protect them in kind.
*Begal originally refers to the act of robbing using sharp weapons itself, but popular usage now includes its perpetrators in the same term.
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