Assuring foreigners' safety

Assuring foreigners' safety

Japanese businessmen are complaining; not about complicated
bureaucratic licensing procedures but about daily living comforts
in Jakarta. In a meeting with the National Police Deputy of
Operations, which was meant to be an exchange of information
about business conditions, they complained about daily annoyances
for which the police should take responsibility.

Most of the 170 executives invited complained of having been
victims of pickpockets at Blok M, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.
Others complained about frequent visits, at their homes or at
their offices, from people carrying stamped documents asking for
donations. Because the papers bear official stamps, they tend to
regard the donations as compulsory rather then voluntary.

Defrauding foreigners does not only occur in Jakarta. In big
cities all over the world, local people take advantage of the
ignorance of strangers by deceiving them or stealing from them.
This Japanese complaint about pickpocketing at Blok M is just
part of the larger problem facing Jakarta -- the lack of public
service.

Their complaint will hopefully stimulate our police officers
to better safeguard security and order for both foreigners and
Indonesians. It should also present a challenge to Jakarta's
Governor Surjadi Soedirdja, who declared Jakarta to be a "service
city".

Service and hospitality are the keys to competitiveness in the
future. At a time when technology has become available to all,
service is critical to securing an advantage amid global
competition. Nations who fail to recognize the value of service
will be pushed aside.

Halting the perception of foreigners as easy objects for
extortion is a good place to start.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta