Indonesia stampede death of 125
Indonesia stampede death of 125: Football isn’t worth a life. Persebaya’s official Twitter account observed sombrely that tear gas deployment by police led to 125 deaths and 180 injuries at Arema FC’s Kanjuruhan stadium.
Persebaya players were evacuated after the Super East Java Derby concluded 3-2.
The two teams’ fans have battled at football games and music events. Surabaya’s fans are called ‘Bonek’ (Bondho – resource Nekat – irresponsible). The ‘Aremania’ of Arema is as aggressive as it is cultural.
Green Force of Persebaya Surabaya won 12 games, Mad Lions of Malang won 10, and 6 draws.
Persebaya’s original avatar was founded in 1927. The club grew to national popularity as a contrast to a competing local club formed primarily of Dutch colonists.
Arema, from Java’s Malang region, was founded in 1987. Malang’s youth (Arek Malang) created the subculture. It originated in Malang’s singosari (lion) kingdom, when the renowned vicious knight Kebo Arama helped King Kertanegara quash rebellions and expansionism.
Arema’s rise in the 1980s was more about Malang’s young population affirming their subaltern identity through language, symbols, and sport to fight East Java’s dominant culture.
Their early scouting was a guerrilla style poaching of known identities, and they used barracks and an Air Force field for their first practice sessions. Malang’s subculture grew boxing.
While they began identifying raw talent and creative instructors, financial troubles and events like its owners selling a majority share to British American Tobacco kept them back.
Stabilizing ownership quickly arrived, but every time the club was pulled down by financial storms, it would hit back on the field, emerge stronger, and this fostered fanaticism.
When the professional league was created in 1994, Persebaya won the title in 1996-7 and 2004.
When matters worsened and cops became regulars, the two were divided into east and west divisions of the local league. In 1988, they agreed not to sit together in stadiums.
Raucousness enters music concerts
Iwan Fals, an Indonesian superstar who crooned many rebellion anthems and was popular among the young for his Jimi Hendrix – Rick Wakeman style’rebana rock’ records, picked Persebaya’s Tambaksari Stadium to launch his album on January 23, 1990. Persebaya fans accused Artemania of “occupying” the festival stadium and yelling Artema slogans. After the concert, riots broke out at Gubeng train station.
Two years later, Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura toured Tambaksari, and the Bonek barred Artemania’s admission, causing violence.
Nurkinan, Persebaya’s outstanding offensive midfielder, was hit by a stone that damaged his left eye while the squad toured Persema Malang, another club. He ended his career after that season in 1995, alluding to trouble lurking around the corner whenever football took off.
Aremania watched a tough match from the VIP seat at the Tambaksari in November 1997 when two supporters brawled. After then, the two sides made peace.
A 2006 Copa Indonesia quarterfinal brought out the worst on September 4. After Persebaya were eliminated from the tournament despite a 1-1 tie, supporters rioted on September 4th. The Bonek vented three cars, hurting 14 including 13 cops in the Aseumper riots, the worst before Saturday’s Kanjuruhan calamity.
“Persebaya’s big family condoles with the Arema FC vs. Persebaya loss of life. Football doesn’t matter.” Victims’ condolences. May the departed’s family find strength. Persebaya tweeted after police tear gas shelling triggered suffocation and stampede, killing hundreds.
Arema went 23 games without a loss in 2021-22 under Portuguese coach Eduardo Almeida. This spell was halted when they lost 1-0 against Persebaya in the Super East Java Derby. Their best season was 4th. Fans fired Almeida in September.
While is Arema’s way, the team ended their association with jersey sponsor Bola88.fun as authorities investigated the stench.
Scary psywars
Indonesian media stated that Persebaya defender Rizky Ridho declared last year, “the match would run with the values that exist in football, including fairplay,” at a press conference.
“The Surabaya defender started it because he knew the game would be intense. The competition between the two squads is responsible for everything that has happened up to this point. Since the two fan bases have begun psychologically reciprocating on social media, he hopes the courtesy extends on the field as well.
The media quoted r Ridho as saying, “I hope Bonek and Arema fans will enjoy the East Java derby tomorrow, and I hope the match will run with the values in football, such as fairplay and others.”
For example, Yusuf Adam Hilman said in the Cultural Study Review, “The ooccurrence of fights which Involved Bonek with Persema followers at the Stadium Gajayana began with the presence of psywar between the Bonek frontman and the mayor of Malang.” This refers to the Aremania.
His subsequent scary writing would state, “The feud between Aremania and Bonekmania not only happens in the physical world, but also in the virtual world.”
The dispersed nature of psywar also suggests a contentious environment in which the two sides’ supporters have infiltrated many spheres of influence. Terrorism, as seen through the lens of Communication Science, is analogous to Psywar, the war of nerves (not always involving physical violence) to communicate with others.
The tragedy of the deadly rivalry would culminate in a pitch invasion following a 3-2 loss, police action, a stampede, and fatalities.