The Government Should Not Be Ngaco, Online Judicial Actors Are Not Victims, How Come They Want To Be Included In The List Of Social Assistance Recipients

Residents showed cash social assistance or BST after taking it at Bank DKI ATMs, Jakarta, Tuesday (20/7/2021). (ANTARA PHOTO/Rivan Awal Lingga/aww.)

JAKARTA There is a suggestion from the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (PMK) Muhadjir Effendy, who wants to include victims of gambling or judol as recipients of social assistance (bansos). Netizens consider the idea of the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture to be not late.

"Yes, we have given a lot of advocacy for those who are victims of this gamblingline. For example, we then put it in the DTKS (Social-ed Welfare Integrated Data) as recipients of this social assistance," said Muhadjir at the Presidential Palace Complex, Central Jakarta, Thursday (13/6/2024).

He reasoned that many judol victims became poor people. His party admitted that they had accompanied the new poor from judol victims.

Since Muhadjir Effendy's idea went viral, almost all people have criticized it. How not, judol players do not deserve to be called victims, let alone have to receive social assistance.

Public policy observer Trubus Rahadiansyah said giving social assistance to judol victims would only cause domino effects. Meanwhile, Director of the Center of Economics and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira assessed that gambling players do not need to be called victims because it is excessive.

The government continues to urge the public not to do gambling. Even President Joko Widodo firmly gave an appeal because the number of victims being caused is increasing, regardless of age, social status, and employment.

In the last kick, the news of Policewomen Brigadier Fadhilatun Nikmah burning her husband, Brigadier Rian Dwi Wicaksono, was widely discussed. Brigadier RDW died from serious burns all over his body. FN is known to be desperate to burn her own husband because the victim is addicted to gambling, even the 13th salary in the victim's account sold out until only Rp800,000 was left.

Previously, an Indonesian Navy officer from North Sumatra, Lettu Laut (K) Eko Damara (31) ended his life by hanging himself. He is suspected of desperate due to a number of problems, including debt of hundreds of millions of rupiah due to gambling addiction.

The gambling section also forced a single man with the initials IS (40) in Depok, to sell his house and choose to live in one of the Public Cemeterys (TPU). His house had to be sold because he was in debt from an online loan gambling.

Judionline is indeed an issue that is difficult to disappear in Indonesian society. Like mushrooms in the rainy season, gambling online sites continue to spread even though the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo) has blocked them.

Drone Emprit, a provider of netizen conversation services on social media, revealed that the number of Indonesian judionline players is the largest in the world. According to the survey of the social media analysis monitor system, the figure of judol transactions in Indonesia exceeded IDR 81 trillion with the number of gambling players reaching 201,122. This figure is only limited to the survey results, not the actual number.

Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) Universitas Airlangga (Unair) Prof. Dr. Bagong Suyanto highlighted that people with lower middle-income economies often do judol. According to Prof. Bagong, online gambling is considered an instant way to get wealth.

The factor of mentality who wants to take a shortcut. If changing fate with a rational route is no longer possible, so he takes irrational paths in the form of gambling, "explained Prof. Bagong.

Then, is it appropriate to include the victim of judol as DTSK until finally he is entitled to receive social assistance from the government?

A public policy observer from Trisakti University Trubus Rahadiansyah said the idea expressed by Muhadjir Effendy was irrational. He assessed that the provision of social assistance to judol victims would only burden the state budget.

"If these judol victims are used as recipients of social assistance, then dependence on social assistance will be higher. In fact, those who are addicted to judol are also getting bigger," Trubus said when contacted by VOI.

"Putting judol victims on the DTSK list other than inappropriate, will also not be effective, even more domino effects," Trubus added.

Regarding judol which is claimed to target the poor, Trubus assesses that now there has been a change in the paradigm in society. Now people don't even think of gambling as something 'haram'.

"This idol does not only know the poor, now there are also many members of the TNI and Polri who are addicted. This means that established people can also be addicted," he said.

"This undermines the assumption that judol is only played by the poor. This means that there is a change in the dynamics in society. People's culture has changed, the more beautiful it is. The size of this material is known to the public by the judol route," Trubus added.

Bhima Yudhistira, Director of Celios also spoke up regarding the discourse of Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy giving social assistance to judol victims. He did not agree to call the judol perpetrator a victim, let alone receive social assistance.

Instead of providing social assistance, Bhima advised online players to be included in rehabilitation institutions, both managed by the government and the private sector. That way, the government will simply finance the perpetrators of online gambling while in a rehabilitation institution.

According to him, Indonesia still has many poor people who really need to enter the DTKS, rather than the online players who become poor because of their own mistakes.

"It is clear that gambling is a criminal act, is it appropriate for the perpetrators to be given social assistance? This means that the government wants to subsidize the perpetrators of online gambling using state money. The government should also not let go of prevention. Judionline will continue to exist if efforts to eradicate upstream are not serious," said Bhima.

In line with Bhima, Nailul Huda also criticized the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture's proposal to include judol actors as victims because online gambling is clearly prohibited by the state. This means that anyone who consciously plays online gambling violates the regulations.

They cannot be called victims. Unless they are deceived on the pretext of investment which turns out to be a judionline, they can only be called victims. But if you play slot gambling, no," said Huda.