A binge drinking event involving adulterated alcohol in Bogor Tengah, Bogor City, and Kademangan Village, Mande District, Cianjur Regency, has resulted in several fatalities.
Four people have died, and one remains in critical condition after consuming the adulterated alcohol at a motorbike washing facility in Bogor Tengah.
Meanwhile, in Kademangan Village, nine victims have been reported dead, with one individual still receiving intensive treatment at Sayang Regional General Hospital on Thursday (Feb. 13).
Once again, an alcohol poisoning case leading to fatalities has surfaced in public discourse, drawing widespread concern.
Sociologist and lecturer R. Derajad Sulistyo Widhyharto from the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (Fisipol UGM), expressed a similar sentiment. He explained that phenomena such as alcohol consumption, drugs, and gambling could be considered traps for the lower middle class, akin to a “hamster wheel.”
In his view, consuming alcohol becomes an expression of the lower middle class in coping with economic pressures.
“Instead of being for productivity, people drink alcohol to unwind after work and relieve stress. It’s like a hamster running on a wheel, where the lower middle class seeks fleeting pleasures at a low cost,” he stated at the UGM campus on Thursday (Feb. 13).
According to Widhyharto, this phenomenon has persisted and remains difficult to eliminate.
The illegal distribution of alcohol as part of the underground economy continues to haunt the lower middle class, suggesting that the government’s efforts toward societal development have yet to fully reach this demographic.
Additionally, increasing individualism in suburban and rural areas exacerbates the problem.
Given these conditions, Widhyharto suggested that the government should take a more proactive role in addressing issues like drugs, alcohol, and gambling.
“The authorities should no longer rely solely on waiting for reports from the public,” he emphasized.
The illegal status of these substances, Widhyharto explained, stems from the government’s failure to collect taxes on products like alcohol and other controlled substances despite their significant economic value.
In his view, the government may be prioritizing its own safety, focusing only on legal economic sources and treating the resulting deaths as mere statistics rather than addressing them as its responsibility.
“If this continues, I fear that 20 years from now, we’ll still hear about these tragedies because law enforcement and relevant authorities are merely waiting for reports,” he elaborated.
Widhyharto also noted that the government has attempted to intervene in household issues by launching a free nutritious meals program.
However, the initiative is limited to school children and does not extend to school dropouts or children forced to work due to poverty.
In his opinion, a sociological approach could offer an appealing solution, encouraging communities to oversee one another.
Families should serve as control units, while the state and law enforcement must shift their paradigm toward actively promoting community policing.
“If necessary, create ‘junior police’—teenagers who can monitor their peers. It must be acknowledged that delivering public services to the community is not an easy task,” he concluded.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Post-editor: Afifudin Baliya
Photo: freepik.com