Daylight savings

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.