TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Much can be learned from an examination of the violence that broke out last week at Tanjungbalai. First, it is not true that every disturbance can be viewed in the same way and generalized into nothing more than an increase in intolerance and radicalism.

It is not always easy to draw conclusions about the root causes of violence and to offer simple and uniform solutions. Every outbreak has different roots and therefore its own specific characteristics. These differences are determined by a number of factors: history, geography and even demographics.

Tanjungbalai Asahan to distinguish it from Tanjungbalai Karimun in the Riau Archipelago is an old city located at the mouths of Asahan and Silau Rivers, not far from the Malacca Strait. In 1620, it became the seat of the Asahan sultanate. The clearing of large tracts of land for plantations in Asahan Regency then led to Tanjungbalai becoming a home for settlers from many ethnic groups.

Chinese settlers have been coming to the city since the days of the sultanate. A cook called 'Hailam' another name for Hainan worked in the house of Asahan nobleman Tengku Alang Yahya. The land for the first Tanjungbalai City Hall was donated by a wealthy Chinese, Njoo Tjiang Seng. The next wave of settlers from China came with the opening of the Medan-Tanjungbalai-Rantau Prapat railroad and the establishment of Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij in 1883.

Before 1965, Tanjungbalai was the only city in Sumatra that organized an annual performance of Peking opera on an open stage for a whole month. Locals called it the Wayang Cino Chinese puppet show. It was performed by Chinese farmers from a place known as Kebun Sayur ('Vegetable Garden'), a few kilometers from the city center. This meant that Chinese people were not foreigners to the people of Tanjungbalai.

The final wave of Chinese settlers came to Tanjungbalai after 1965. They came from upriver, and even from the borders of Riau. They felt threatened in their hometowns and moved in, bringing their assets with them. Tanjungbalai, which in the 1980s was the most densely populated city in Southeast Asia, saw a change in its demographic makeup.

A few of these newcomers opened illegal businesses; it is no secret that Tanjungbalai is a city rife with drugs. There is constant smuggling because Malaysia is only a few hours from the mouth of the Asahan River by speedboat. And neither is it a secret that this business needs the collusion between the criminals and people who can provide them protection.

The gap between the rich and poor has long been widening and this may be the real root of the problem. The fact that Tanjungbalai has more than five Buddhist and Chinese temples proves that the inhabitants are not opposed to houses of worship of other faiths.

The police need to find the rioters and the people behind them, so that this case does not grind to a halt before it is even resolved. Who gains from this type of disturbance? That is the question that needs answering.

The Tanjungbalai riot cannot be resolved in the traditional way, with handshakes and sitting down for dinner together. There must be real effort to narrow the gulf between the rich and the poor and to eradicate the illegal businesses that infest this city. All parties, especially the law enforcement authorities, must therefore approach the problem by setting aside their narrow self-interests. (*)

Read the full story in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine