Tragic Events at Kanjuruhan Stadium Bring to Light Problems With Police Tear Gas Use And The Role Of Indonesia's Football Association
Following a fatal stampede on October 1, 2022, at the Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, East Java province, the Indonesian police are under scrutiny. One of the the incident resulted in at least one death and more than 370 injuries.
In addition to expressing compassion for the victims, football communities in and have denounced the police for the harsh actions that caused the rush.
Despite football matches using "crowd-control gas," the stampede happened after the police sprayed tear gas at the throng in the tribune.
I contend that the tragedy has brought attention to the difficulties with the deployment of tear gas by Indonesian police as an expert in international relations who focuses on matters of national security.
Football, riot police in Indonesia, and tear gas
Indonesia has seen football-related riots. Since 1994, there have been occurrences involving Indonesian football competitions up until August.
To keep stadium crowds under control, the police frequently employed tear gas. On April 9, 2019, police used tear gas to stop fans from breaking down stadium doors.
At Gelora Bung Tomo stadium in Surabaya, East Java, police used tear gas to disperse angry spectators, killing one of them.
East Java regional police justified the deployment of tear gas by the police after the disaster at Kanjuruhan Stadium, claiming that it was.
Tear gas has been a factor in several stadium tragedies throughout history, including those that occurred in Lima, Peru in 1964, Ghana in 2001, and Egypt in 2012.
Tear gas has also been deployed by the Indonesian police to quell demonstrations during non-sporting events. They shot tear gas at protestors in ; ; ; and during the 2020 demonstrations against the omnibus package on job creation.
For tear gas purchases in 2022, the Indonesian Police has budgeted (US$10.4 million). Tear gas purchase began in 2013, with the highest spend coming in 2017 ($21.7 million) and the second largest in 2020 ($14.7 million).
Management issues with Indonesia's football association
The police have asserted that they were not aware of the FIFA ban on the use of tear gas at stadiums and that the use of tear gas had not been authorized.
Given that the chairman of the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI), Mochamad Iriawan, is a retired police officer, it is perplexing that the police are unaware of the tear gas prohibition. One would presume that he would be more than capable of coordinating and communicating with the police on the ban.
Rather, that the association's approach for risk reduction did not take the tear gas prohibition into account. This provoked even more public outrage.
The PSSI had broken the law. Any unregulated behavior, including FIFA's no-tear gas rule, is required to refer to the safety and security standards, according to the report.
The newly enacted protects the rights of the association's supporters.
The Danish Institute for Sports Studies (Idan) program Play the Game has made reference to the governance of the Indonesian Football Association's ineffectiveness.
The analysis demonstrates that the group neglected to educate its constituents about honesty. So it stands to reason that other crucial football characteristics would be neglected.
Years of poor administration and corruption are mostly to blame for the association's inability to fulfill its responsibility to produce a safe and favorable football league.
Due to football's popularity in Indonesia, the game has become extremely politicized, a situation that has been frequently documented.
In a word, we need to make sure that the police and football association handle matches better going forward to guarantee that neither FIFA rules nor human rights are violated. Nobody's life is worth a football game.