Can we queue only by enforcement?<\/p>\n
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
It would be sad to conclude that Indonesians can only manage
\nto wait in lines via enforcement by security officers.<\/p>\n
This, regrettably, seems to be the case in some private
\nbuildings.<\/p>\n
Two well-dressed women who were queuing at the Bank Central
\nAsia counter in the GKBI building on Jl. Sudirman in Central
\nJakarta grew visibly mad recently at a man who suddenly jumped
\nahead of them in line.<\/p>\n
\"Wild young man indeed -- don't you have any morals?\" wondered
\none of the women aloud as she pushed the man out of the way.<\/p>\n
Before long, a security guard appeared and put the man in his
\nplace in line. The confrontation ended there.<\/p>\n
The objection from the woman and the security guard's presence
\ngave the man the lesson he needed to stand in line.<\/p>\n
But don't expect such a quick fix when you are queuing at many
\npublic service offices.<\/p>\n
At city police headquarters on Jl. Sudirman, for example,
\nqueuing in front of a counter seems a bit out of place.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, at the vehicle's document processing division
\n(Samsat) located in a building of the headquarters's vast
\ncomplex, people could be found surging towards the counters,
\nrunning roughshod over each other, oblivious to the bars
\ndelineating where they were supposed to wait in line.<\/p>\n
A policeman walking to and fro was himself oblivious to the
\nunruly crowd before him -- and was even taken aback when The
\nJakarta Post tried to raise the issue.<\/p>\n
\"Mas (brother)... don't show off with your orderly attitude of
\nqueuing, don't talk too much, just get into the locket like
\nothers,\" he retorted.<\/p>\n
One of the men in line, Yanto, who was forcing himself toward
\nthe front said that he had given up the idea of lining up in an
\ndisorderly fashion.<\/p>\n
\"Queuing in this place? Are you nuts? I don't want to be left
\nbehind ... After all, everybody else is jostling. I need to save
\nsome time, too,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The same type of disorderliness reigned at the Bukit Duri
\nsubdistrict office in South Jakarta, where people did not even
\nbother to process their identification cards (ID) at the counter.<\/p>\n
Instead, dozens of people crowded the staffers' room, while
\nincessantly jumping ahead of each other's queue.<\/p>\n
At the desks of the staffers, dozens of Rp 20,000 and 50,000
\nnotes were strewn all over their desks. The money was likely to
\nserve as \"lubrication oil\" to speed things up albeit processing
\nan ID card is free by law.<\/p>\n
Akmal, a Bukit Duri resident who was processing his ID, said
\nthat he would sincerely stand up in line. However, the
\nenvironment was not conducive for him to do so.<\/p>\n
\"In such a crowded and disorderly situation, who wants to get
\nin line? I would do so if somebody started it first,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Lukman, one of the office's employees, said that he was
\npowerless to stop people from entering his office.<\/p>\n
\"The counter was useless, since everybody is trying to process
\ntheir IDs from behind the counter. However, I did not ask for the
\nmoney,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Even at the newly opened one-stop service building in Central
\nJakarta mayoralty, queuing was nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n
In this place, people flocked the front part of every counter
\nwithout bothering to wait for others to finish their businesses.<\/p>\n
An official at the city treasury counter did not even scold a
\nperson who cut in front of others.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, not all state offices are so disorderly.<\/p>\n
The East Jakarta mayoralty office is exemplary when it comes
\nto queuing for business. Under the watchful eyes of two public
\norder officers, one has only to queue to enter an elevator in
\nthis office.<\/p>\n
A man who was trying to jump a queue was scolded by both
\npublic order officers and other people in the queue.<\/p>\n
\"Queuing please!\" they shouted.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/can-we-queue-only-by-enforcement-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }