Between an MRT and Air Force One

Between an MRT and Air Force One

JAKARTA (JP): Comfort is a luxury if you travel on public
transportation in Jakarta. It's by sheer luck, or a miracle, if
you find a "comfortable" city bus to get to the office. The fact
is most of the time you spend the bus trip trying to keep calm
amid all your discomfort.

Of course, every cloud has a silver lining. That is good news
for those of you who want to train yourselves mentally and
physically to enter an advanced state of body and mind. Let's
check things out one by one.

First, for your body. Most of the time, even if you are
waiting in the right place, you will still have to chase the bus
because there is no telling where it will stop. You also have to
get onto the bus as fast as you can because the limit to make it
on is 10 seconds. Sometimes that means competing with other
passengers and pushing your way out of the crowd. And be prepared
because there is so little space for you that it's lucky if you
can remain standing on your feet.

Sometimes other passengers push so much that you have to move
to a corner, or, because you cannot push other passengers in
return, you are stuck in front of the always open door, your
right leg on the bus floor and the other hanging awkwardly on the
step. Once you are in the bus, you have to lean on something,
either on a seat, the body of the vehicle or even on another
passenger. If you do not grab onto something, you are likely to
fall and head-butt your nearest neighbor when the bus lurches to
a stop.

While it's important to maintain your balance, it's much more
of a concern to hold onto your bag and wallet as tightly as
possible. Otherwise, you may find yourself alighting the bus
without your purse, cell phone or other valuables you had at the
start of the trip.

Now you get the picture. Well, yes, there are hundreds of
calories to be burned: the running, the jumping on, the grabbing,
the pushing, the balancing -- they all add up to a strenuous
workout for your legs, arms, upper body and lower body.

There is also a mental workout to be found in the test of your
patience. If you get upset hearing people scream and scold each
other wildly, don't bother to ride city buses. If you have never
experienced what it is like to be pushed aside or never done the
same to someone else, then city buses will be your training
ground.

If you have a short fuse, try to learn how to go with the flow
by traveling on the buses and dealing with all that goes around
you.

Well, guys, your Jakarta living experience is not complete if
you have never tried public transportation. It really is a "hell"
of an experience.

OK, I'm kidding. Actually, the improvement in public
transportation needs a lot of work. We need to tackle these
problems as fast as we can.

We must build a Mass Rapid Transportation (MRT) system, which
we often see in foreign movies. This is an old issue and the plan
has been discussed for years. But the discussion ground to a halt
when the monetary crisis hit us.

Our monetary situation is still bad, so dire in fact that it
would be impossible to revive the plan for the MRT for Jakarta
right now. Even though the people badly need it, they have to be
patient with the existing transportation situation until the
right time rolls around to make things better.

And then I read about the President's plan to buy a
presidential airplane. Wow! How great Indonesia is after all.
Just like superpower America, we are going to have an Air Force
One. But then a feeling of despair takes over as I remember
Mahatma Gandhi, who traveled in an economic-class train just to
feel what his people went through.

Of course, we cannot compare the present with the past, or the
amount of budget to buy a plane or to build an MRT. But if the
people whose hard-earned money is used to run the country have to
bear the brunt of the hard times, then why should the president
enjoy the grandeur of a new plane? The important thing is he can
professionally carry out his duties, regardless of whether he is
on Air Force One or a regular plane.

Anyway, the plan to buy the new plane has been shelved. Yet
the question that remains is whether the duties are being carried
out well. It's something to ponder on your next ride on the
buses.

-- Chadijah Mastura