Can we queue only by enforcement?
Can we queue only by enforcement?
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
It would be sad to conclude that Indonesians can only manage
to wait in lines via enforcement by security officers.
This, regrettably, seems to be the case in some private
buildings.
Two well-dressed women who were queuing at the Bank Central
Asia counter in the GKBI building on Jl. Sudirman in Central
Jakarta grew visibly mad recently at a man who suddenly jumped
ahead of them in line.
"Wild young man indeed -- don't you have any morals?" wondered
one of the women aloud as she pushed the man out of the way.
Before long, a security guard appeared and put the man in his
place in line. The confrontation ended there.
The objection from the woman and the security guard's presence
gave the man the lesson he needed to stand in line.
But don't expect such a quick fix when you are queuing at many
public service offices.
At city police headquarters on Jl. Sudirman, for example,
queuing in front of a counter seems a bit out of place.
On Wednesday, at the vehicle's document processing division
(Samsat) located in a building of the headquarters's vast
complex, people could be found surging towards the counters,
running roughshod over each other, oblivious to the bars
delineating where they were supposed to wait in line.
A policeman walking to and fro was himself oblivious to the
unruly crowd before him -- and was even taken aback when The
Jakarta Post tried to raise the issue.
"Mas (brother)... don't show off with your orderly attitude of
queuing, don't talk too much, just get into the locket like
others," he retorted.
One of the men in line, Yanto, who was forcing himself toward
the front said that he had given up the idea of lining up in an
disorderly fashion.
"Queuing in this place? Are you nuts? I don't want to be left
behind ... After all, everybody else is jostling. I need to save
some time, too," he said.
The same type of disorderliness reigned at the Bukit Duri
subdistrict office in South Jakarta, where people did not even
bother to process their identification cards (ID) at the counter.
Instead, dozens of people crowded the staffers' room, while
incessantly jumping ahead of each other's queue.
At the desks of the staffers, dozens of Rp 20,000 and 50,000
notes were strewn all over their desks. The money was likely to
serve as "lubrication oil" to speed things up albeit processing
an ID card is free by law.
Akmal, a Bukit Duri resident who was processing his ID, said
that he would sincerely stand up in line. However, the
environment was not conducive for him to do so.
"In such a crowded and disorderly situation, who wants to get
in line? I would do so if somebody started it first," he said.
Lukman, one of the office's employees, said that he was
powerless to stop people from entering his office.
"The counter was useless, since everybody is trying to process
their IDs from behind the counter. However, I did not ask for the
money," he said.
Even at the newly opened one-stop service building in Central
Jakarta mayoralty, queuing was nowhere to be seen.
In this place, people flocked the front part of every counter
without bothering to wait for others to finish their businesses.
An official at the city treasury counter did not even scold a
person who cut in front of others.
Fortunately, not all state offices are so disorderly.
The East Jakarta mayoralty office is exemplary when it comes
to queuing for business. Under the watchful eyes of two public
order officers, one has only to queue to enter an elevator in
this office.
A man who was trying to jump a queue was scolded by both
public order officers and other people in the queue.
"Queuing please!" they shouted.