1. PUPUD -- 1 x 35<\/p>\n
Pupud Saripudin, a dedicated driver<\/p>\n
Urip Hudiono
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Becoming part of the intensely discussed busway project is
\nmore than just a question of pride or making a better livelihood
\nfor a bus driver like Pupud Saripudin.<\/p>\n
It is a chance to show the public that a bus driver too
\nunderstands what that sacred word professionalism means -- a
\nconviction born out of his concern about the widespread
\nimpression that Jakarta's bus drivers are reckless and lawless.<\/p>\n
"I want to show the public that bus drivers can also drive
\nwith a high level of discipline and expertise, while providing
\npremium service as well to their passengers," said 42-year-old
\nPupud recently, prior to the launch of the TransJakarta Busway on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
For sure Pupud's remark will come as a relief for those who
\nare concerned about the city's poor public transportation service
\nfor it does not come from a smooth-talking politician but it
\ncomes from someone who has in fact spent more than a decade
\nplying Jakarta's streets.<\/p>\n
Pupud, the father of three children, has not a single traffic
\nviolation on his record.<\/p>\n
Pupud was one of the 100 bus drivers who was nominated for the
\ncity's best bus driver award last year and the only one from his
\nSteady Safe bus company, making him his company's number one
\ncandidate to be trained as a busway bus driver. He later joined
\nthe training at the National Police Traffic Training Center in
\nSerpong, Tangerang, with 115 other drivers for the busway
\nproject.<\/p>\n
"I feel honored, and will try to do my best," he said, as he
\nbuckled up before adeptly test-driving one of the buses around
\nthe training center.<\/p>\n
Born in Cimahi, West Java, Pupud said that he had little
\nchoice, anyway, than to strive to be the best he could.<\/p>\n
"All I am skilled in is driving buses, and maybe a little bit
\nof engine tinkering. So I might as well give my whole soul to
\nit," he said.<\/p>\n
Like so many other urban migrants coming from small towns to
\nthe big city to try their luck, Pupud came to Jakarta in 1979 to
\nlook for work to put himself through school.<\/p>\n
"Since I couldn't afford to pay my senior technical vocational
\nschool (STM) fees, I decided to go find work in Jakarta rather
\nthan burden my parents," he said.<\/p>\n
Arriving at the capital, Pupud was lucky enough to get a job
\nas a mechanic at an auto repair shop through some of his hometown
\nfriends.<\/p>\n
"It was an auto repair shop for those American jeeps. You
\nknow, those Willys jeeps," he said, adding that it was there that
\nhe first learned how to drive.<\/p>\n
Pupud's driving experience broadened when his employer asked
\nhim to drive delivery trucks for a chemical plant, as well as
\noccasionally drive buses for his family outings.<\/p>\n
In 1985, Pupud's employer gave him a reference to work with
\nBig Bird, Blue Bird Group's chartered bus division, before he
\nfinally joined Steady Safe buses in 1993.<\/p>\n
Pupud worked for 10 years at Steady Safe; seven years serving
\nthe Lebak Bulus-Senen route, before the route was expanded to
\nDepok-Kota by his company three years ago.<\/p>\n
In September 2003, it turned out that his driving was being
\ndiscreetly monitored by officers from the Jakarta Transportation
\nAgency and the Jakarta Police traffic division.<\/p>\n
"I didn't know I was being monitored. I only knew when my
\ncompany notified me that I was summoned by the transportation
\nagency but I didn't know what I was being summoned for," he
\nrecalled.<\/p>\n
Two weeks of extensive training on traffic regulations,
\ndriving skills and etiquette in October 2003 was what the
\ntransportation agency summoned Pupud for, as they had chosen him
\nas a model bus driver.<\/p>\n
"It was similar to training I received at the training center
\nin Serpong back in 1995. And afterwards, we received the honor of
\nbeing accepted by the governor at City Hall, and were then
\nawarded as the city's best bus drivers for 2003," Pupud said.<\/p>\n
But he did not become complacent after receiving the award, as
\nhe now felt that he had an even greater responsibility of
\nupholding his professionalism as a bus driver.<\/p>\n
"I would feel so humiliated now if I was honked at by other
\nmotorists or if passengers complained about my driving," he said.<\/p>\n
Pupud has also become more critical since he received his
\ntraining, particularly about certain traffic regulations where he
\nhas direct knowledge and experience as a public transportation
\nbus driver.<\/p>\n
"If the government wants bus drivers and passengers to comply
\nwith Law No.14\/1992 on highway traffic that requires all buses to
\nstop only at shelters, then they have to make sure the shelters
\nare built at convenient locations," he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, concerning the busway project itself, Puput
\nexpressed hope that the public support it, though he also
\nunderstood the criticism toward it.<\/p>\n
"Please give us a chance to show that we can be good drivers,"
\nhe said, as he stepped out of the busway bus he just test drove.<\/p>\n
Residing in a modest house in Bekasi, Pupud admits that he has
\nhigh hopes that the prestigious project can also improve his
\nwelfare.<\/p>\n
While one should of course keep an eye out for any emerging
\nflaws of the project, one should also think again before merely
\ncanning it without cause, as many ordinary, or "little people" --
\nare pinning their hopes on it.<\/p>\n
And the dedicated bus driver Pupud Saripudin, is but one of
\nthose "little people".<\/p>\n
2. MAO -- 1 x 45<\/p>\n
Mao's grandson a big chip off the old block<\/p>\n
Jonathan Ansfield
\nReuters
\nBeijing<\/p>\n
Mao Xinyu seldom calls him grandpa any more.<\/p>\n
He usually refers to his illustrious forebear as Chairman Mao,
\nor simply Chairman, reserving the full name of China's once-
\ndeified leader for when he cites his political canon.<\/p>\n
"In this new century, this new period of history, to publicise
\nMao Zedong's thought, to carry forward Chairman Mao's glorious
\nimage, this work is even more important than before," he says,
\nintoning a well-rehearsed sermon.<\/p>\n
More than a quarter-century after his death in 1976, Mao's
\ncontinuing status as a global pop icon contrasts with the
\nincreasingly acknowledged bankruptcy of his politics, a pretext
\nfor all kinds of irony.<\/p>\n
The burden of reconciling China's past and present has been
\nthrust on the distended frame of his grandson, who is said to
\nhave grown up sheltered by servants and guards, kidding
\nclassmates about what he'd do when he took power.<\/p>\n
In a generation of "little emperors", he appeared to fit the
\nmould better than any, logging mediocre test scores and tipping
\nthe scales at more than 250 lbs (114 kg).<\/p>\n
Today, as an army-trained Mao historian and lieutenant
\ncolonel, Xinyu, 33, remains a ceremonial figure. But while he has
\nslimmed little, he has matured a good deal.<\/p>\n
Sitting back in a voluminous green uniform, swearing to uphold
\nMao's guerrilla gospel, he faintly resembles his grandfather --
\npart country bumpkin, part quixotic bookworm, part sprawled-out
\nsovereign.<\/p>\n
"Aya, there's pressure, there's pressure," he sighed, with a
\npuffy-cheeked grin, at the end of an interview. "Because the
\nwhole nation's people have their eyes on me."<\/p>\n
Moments after Xinyu left, one of his publicity aides at the
\nAcademy of Military Sciences explained that "pressure" was meant
\nto convey filial respect, all the more so for an ancestor of his
\ngrandfather's stature.<\/p>\n
Mao's 110th birthday, Dec. 26, came and went last month,
\nmaking no great waves in Chinese public life.<\/p>\n
The Communist Party aired the usual television hagiographies
\nwhile capitalistic co-sponsors peddled the latest gimmicks, from
\nbooks spinning Mao's wartime survival tactics into management
\ntips to hip-hop music recordings of his trademark theories.<\/p>\n
Xinyu, for his part, did a rare run of interviews and book
\nsignings to promote his new anecdotal history, Grandpa Mao
\nZedong.<\/p>\n
The paperback has sold several tens of thousands of copies,
\nthe Ph.D. replied modestly when asked. Later he suggested, "I'll
\ngive you the rights. You can translate it!"<\/p>\n
The Great Helmsman named him Xinyu, or "new universe".
\nHis father, Mao Anqing, the chairman's second son, was a party
\ninterpreter before succumbing to schizophrenia; his mother Shao
\nHua, an esteemed photojournalist, is a major-general. His wife is
\nalso in the army.<\/p>\n
In China's elite circles today, many so-called princelings
\nmilk their pedigree to find jobs in prize industries, from real
\nestate (party boss Hu Jintao's daughter) to semi-conductors
\n(military chief Jiang Zemin's son). Some hold official posts
\nthemselves.<\/p>\n
For Mao's heirs, the chambers of party power were seemingly
\noff limits, the boardrooms of business sure to incur scandal.
\nSo the family -- said to suffer from bad genes and be subject to
\nbad grudges by elites rehabilitated after the Chairman's 1966-76
\nCultural Revolution -- came to depend on the military.<\/p>\n
Xinyu insists his clan simply have their own special calling,
\nto act as "successors" to Mao's revolutionary work.<\/p>\n
"As the Chairman's relatives, we must take heed to serve the
\npeople at every turn," he said.<\/p>\n
As for those counter-revolutionaries who exploit Mao's image
\nfor personal gain, with kitsch cigarette lighters and so on, he
\nhas a rosy-red outlook: "If you ask to me look at these phenomena
\nand what they relate to, I believe China's common people want to
\nhave beliefs and spiritual sustenance."<\/p>\n
"Since the 100th anniversary especially, I feel that common
\nChinese people's spiritual beliefs and spiritual sustenance have
\nbeen embodied in Chairman Mao."<\/p>\n
That was less than apparent in the capital on Mao's 110th
\nbirthday. While many stopped to snap souvenir photos before the
\nTiananmen rostrum, where Mao proclaimed the People's Republic in
\n1949 and where his portrait still keeps watch, perhaps as many
\nlined up outside department stores for shots with Santa Claus.<\/p>\n
Xinyu said that one reason he wrote his book was to dispel
\ncertain Mao "myths", although he declined to cite examples.
\nThe authorities have banned some books over the years, such as
\nphysician Li Zhisui's notorious portrayal of Mao as a randy
\nmegalomaniac. Even a sanctioned new memoir by another doctor,
\nWang Hebin, devotes pages to Mao's pet phrase fang pi -- to "pass
\ngas".<\/p>\n
There are no "fang pi" tales from his grandson, who said his
\nclearest memory was of the day Mao died. Xinyu writes that the
\nradical thinker also took frugality to an extreme, preferring to
\nwear pajamas patched in 67 places rather than replace them.<\/p>\n
As with many Chinese biographies of the late Chairman, 90
\npercent of Xinyu's volume focuses on the pre-1949 Mao, credited
\nwith emancipating the masses after millennia of feudalism. The
\nMao blamed for 30-50 million deaths from famine during the Great
\nLeap Forward and millions more in the Cultural Revolution goes
\nunmentioned.<\/p>\n
But even this self-styled Mao disciple bows to the accepted
\nverdict in China: Mao made mistakes, but his contributions
\nexceeded them.<\/p>\n
"He was mainly exploring how to build China's socialist road,"
\nXinyu said. "In this exploration, it was hard to avoid mistakes."
\nThe party Mao helped found has spent most of the time since his
\ndeath trying to unravel his radical collectivist policies, the
\nlatest step a constitutional amendment moderately strengthening
\nprivate property rights.<\/p>\n
Would Mao have approved? His grandson, echoing the party's
\nofficial rationale, said Mao always envisaged the need for a
\nprivate sector to forge conditions for socialism.<\/p>\n
"So in relation to multiple economic components, this big
\nissue, I think Chairman Mao would not be opposed to it."
\nThus the heir, who writes of his grandfather as "the spine of the
\nChinese people", declares his unswerving faith that the present
\ntimes are an extension of Mao's own.<\/p>\n
"The current state of the country, that it could develop his
\nwork and his thought, I think he would be happy about."
\nMao would undoubtedly be amused by his progeny's efforts to
\naugment his legend. On Mao's birthday, Dec. 26, Mao Xinyu's wife
\ngave birth to the chairman's first great-grandson.<\/p>\n
"The name is not decided," said the blushing father. "But his
\nnickname is Dongdong."<\/p>\n
REUTERS<\/p>\n
GetRTR 3.00 -- JAN 14, 2004 08:39:50<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/1-pupud-1-x-35-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }