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