Driving not as easy as it used to be

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In an effort to improve the quality of drivers in Jakarta, the Jakarta Police have vowed to tighten the procedure in obtaining a driving license for new applicants.

"As a consequence, the ratio of new drivers passing the test will drop from 800 out of 1,000 applicants to only 600," said the Jakarta Police traffic division chief Sr. Comr. Sulistyo Ishak on Wednesday.

He explained that the tougher procedure would start from the administrative selection, particularly the applicants' age as many fake their age when applying for a license, medical examination, written test on traffic regulations and a driving test.

"For example, now we are using a color diagram to check for color blindness. We did not use that before and sometimes our officers were not disciplined in conducting the test," he said.

Sulistyo said that the city police had not yet conducted a study on the relationship between the quality of drivers and the number of traffic accidents.

"Some research shows that accidents are largely caused by drivers' lack of discipline. However, we must not dismiss other causes," he said.

Driving license applicants must apply and undergo the tests at the Driving License Service Center on Jl. Daan Mogot, West Jakarta.

The service center is notorious for its corrupt officers and omnipresent middlemen who try to profit from applicants who choose to skip procedures.

Each applicant need pay only Rp 52,500 (US$6.1) to apply for a license, Rp 20,000 to rent the car for the driving test and Rp 5,000 for the medical examination. However, many applicants prefer to use the services of middlemen by paying between Rp 150,000 and Rp 200,000.

"We have seriously tried to curb the use of middlemen. We restrict non-applicants from entering the service center building," Sulistyo said. "Of course, middlemen are still wandering about outside the building, but they cannot go any further than the front office where people fill in the forms."