Daylight savings

There was a headline recently in which President Megawati Soekarnoputri urged us all to help save electricity by limiting our usage.

This reminded me of an idea I had years ago. When I first entered Indonesia via Singapore, the airline advised us to put our watches back one hour for Jakarta time. I thought this was a mistake, as you always put clocks forward as you travel eastwards, but two or three days later I had to admit that the airline had given the right information.

From time to time I asked people why the clocks are "wrong" here, according to the world time zone system. The only answer I ever got was that it had something to do with the military strategies of then president Sukarno in the early 1960s during confrontation with Malaysia.

So why not now return West Indonesia Time (WIB) time back to its original time? My idea is that this will help save electricity. If the clocks are put forward one hour, it will get dark one hour "later" in the evenings and everyone will switch on their lights at 7 p.m. instead of 6 p.m.

Of course, some lights might go on "earlier" in the mornings as daylight would be an hour later, but this is much less than all the lights that go on in the evenings in homes and in all the public areas such as shopping areas and eating places, and even many work places.

This is exactly what is done in many countries in temperate zones during the summer months to extend daylight hours so that people can enjoy the evening hours. It's simple to do. And it has been done here not so long ago in Bali and West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), and people there had no problem in adapting to the time change, as far as I know.

HELEN LOK, Bandung

My full address is Jl. Rancabentang 16, Bandung. Tel. 022 2034803. I will send a copy of my KTP by fax tomorrow, Helen Lok.