Why Kanjuruhan Tragedy Can Happen?

On October 1, 2022, a fatal crowd crushing incident occurred after a football match
at the Kanjuruhan Stadium, Malang Regency, East Java. Following the defeat of the
home team Arema to rivals Persebaya Surabaya, around 3,000 Arema supporters
entered the field. The police said that the supporters rioted and attacked the players
and team officials, so the police tried to protect the players and stop the rioting, but
the crowd clashed with security forces. In response, a riot police unit fired tear gas,
prompting onlookers to run to avoid it. This creates a buildup of crowds. A crowd
crushing occurred at the exit, causing a number of supporters to experience
asphyxia. As of October 24, it was recorded that 135 people had died and 583 others
were injured. This disaster is the second deadliest disaster in the history of football
around the world, after the 1964 Estadio Nacional tragedy in Peru which killed 328
people. Thus, this disaster is the deadliest in Asia, Indonesia, and the eastern
hemisphere. On October 6, 2022, the Chief of Police of the Republic of
Indonesia Listyo Sigit Prabowo announced six suspects: the match organizing
director PT. Liga Indonesia Baru (LIB), Arema chief security officer, Arema match
organizing committee for negligence and three police officers for using tear gas. But
why can this tragedy happen?

Firstly, Although FIFA regulation 19b states that tear gas may not be used in
stadiums by fieldside officers or the police, tear gas is still used by Indonesian police
riot units to secure football matches. FIFA Rules are optional when an association or
confederation regulates an event with its own competition rules. Therefore, these
regulations can only function as guidelines

Secondly, Arema and Persebaya Surabaya, two long-standing clubs in the East
Java Super Derby, are scheduled to play a regular season Liga 1 match at Malang's
42,000-capacity Kanjuruhan Stadium on 1 October. Due to security concerns, the
police have requested that the match be held early in the afternoon at 3:30 pm
(08:30 UTC) instead of 20:00 (13:00 UTC), and only 38,000 people will be allowed to
watch; however the request was not accepted by League 1 officials and match
organizers, and 42,000 tickets were printed. However, following the advice of the
police, match tickets were not provided for Persebaya supporters. The Malang Police
Chief had a telephone conversation with the Director of Operations of LIB, Sujarno,
who said that the match should still be held at night.

Finally, we are concerned about what happened. Supposedly, in a country that is

known to be safe and peaceful like Indonesia, this is not possible. no life is worth
football. Why does this happen? Even though FIFA rules have stated that there
should be no tear gas in the stadium. The security inside the stadium didn't seem to
see the situation. It is natural that there were many casualties because the audience
numbered in the thousands and jostled to save themselves through one way. the
management should be more careful with what they will do, and think about the
worst risks. This kanjuruhan incident can be an example of an incident that does not
know who to blame. but we feel that if the security forces didn't release tear gas,
maybe there wouldn't be hundreds of victims who are currently traumatized and even
died, maybe there wouldn't be children who lost their parents, maybe there wouldn't
be Aremania who stopped supporting their idols, maybe they wouldn't. there are bad
memories left in the minds of the victims.
From this, we hope that this tragedy will not happen again. Hopefully the Indonesian
police are wiser in making decisions and protecting the people according to their
duties. I hope the victims will rest in peace there and their families will be given
sincerity.