Expatriates do their best to ward of crime

Expatriates do their best to ward of crime

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): Only yesterday, upmarket residential areas like
Pondok Indah were considered a paradise to live in. Today, more
and more houses in this paradise are giving way to apartments.
Residents reigned from sprawling homes equipped with modern
amenities while lush tropical greenery engulfed them in complete
privacy. Yet all this poetically peaceful lifestyle is now being
exchanged for the prosaic but surely more secure life of
apartment buildings and housing complexes.

As law and order deteriorates in the city and incidents of
crime increase, more houses are expected to be abandoned and left
garlanded with "for rent" signs. In January alone, a-crime-a-day
was noted by a security coordination cell of a Jakarta-based
international organization. The local police add that crime has
risen by over 10 percent in the city.

All the remaining occupied houses look more like fortresses
than homes these days, equipped as they are with high barbed wire
fences that seem to reach up to the skies and search lights that
can blind from kilometers away. Apart from several security
guards, poles have also sprouted overnight around homes that are
fitted with closed circuit television cameras and spot lights.
Not to forget the different breeds of dogs that are seen snarling
behind many an art nouveau gate.

In short, both visiting people and waiting for people to visit
has become a most suspicious affair.

"I hate living in an apartment. But I suppose we are safer
here," complained a Pakistani.

During last May's social unrest, she and her teenage son found
themselves alone in a house in Pondok Indah. Her husband was
traveling and she panicked when she was told that she would be
evacuated to Singapore. However, remaining in a big house was
also an uncomfortable thought.

Soon after the heat and dust settled in the city, she moved
her family to the Hilton Residence. In all these years she had
never felt the need for a mobile phone, but now she carries one
just to keep in constant touch with family and friends.

A vice president of Citibank instead chose to install a
US$8,000 alarm system in his sprawling South Jakarta home. Now he
has panic buttons in each bedroom which the children have been
instructed to press immediately upon seeing an intruder in the
house.

"I do feel a little more safe with the alarm system," said the
wife, who has also hired six security guards so that at any given
time of the day or night she has at least two guards outside her
home. And her strict instructions to the staff is not to
entertain anyone, including friends and relatives, in the house.

Scores of palatial homes were built for the army of
expatriates that trooped into the country mostly during the late
1980s and the early 1990s. Along with Singapore and Malaysia,
Indonesia was part of the big boom region. Many expatriates were
involved in the financial, banking and hospitality sectors in
upper management positions and earned salaries ranging from
US$10,000 up to $50,000 dollars per month, plus house allowances
and other perks running into another couple of thousand dollars.

Then came the economic crisis in 1997, followed by social and
political unrest when life for expatriates turned turtle. Many of
them had to leave the country. The Jakarta-based International
Community Activity Center (ICAC) had more than 1,200 members last
year. That number has dwindled to a paid membership of just 500.
Those who remain here have become more cautious about security.

In all his 11 years in Jakarta, Terry DeMaret, facilities
manager at the Jakarta International School (JIS), never thought
twice about visiting any part of town at any time of the day or
night. Even the notorious Tanah Abang. Today he is not so
confident. He is a little more cautious. He prefers not to drive
through places like Tanah Abang.

"It is not for myself that I fear. I lived in very troubled
parts of Africa," DeMaret said.

His constant concern is for the thousands of students and
hundreds of staff members at JIS. During his eight years at the
school where he is responsible for maintenance, engineering,
housing and security, he recalls that the school has received
three bomb threats. Luckily all of them turned out to be false
alarms, but the last one that came early last year was taken most
seriously.

The local authorities were informed immediately and within
minutes both military and police bomb squads arrived. The entire
school was evacuated.

The school has not felt the need to go in for hi-tech security
solutions like television cameras or alarm systems, but the
number of security guards has been increased and safety is
further insured with the installation of new gates. A new
assistant chief of security was recently hired, and all staff
members, parents and senior students are required to wear
identification badges when on campus. DeMaret also periodically
circulates memorandums to all parties involved with the school,
giving simple but often forgotten tips regarding residential
security.

He has advised that all household help are told not to
entertain strangers, to keep all gates and doors locked when not
in use and to never leave the house vacant unless specifically
instructed by the employer. The school also stays in constant
touch with local radio stations, the military, local police
stations and a good source of information for trouble on the
streets is the Blue Bird bus service that transports students
across the length and breadth of the city.

"Sure, the current rise in criminality in the country is
worrying. But it is not just foreigners who are affected.
Everyone of us is in it together," DeMaret said.

It is mostly financial institutions like banks and commercial
buildings that go in for state-of-the-art technology and loss
prevention solutions. Most residents have simply increased the
number of security guards in their homes, which keeps a lot of
ex-Army people on their toes. Dozens of retired soldiers have
started foundations to train young men to become security guards.
Like Pak Suwardi, an ex-military man trained in security and
telecommunications, is now employed by JIS. Pak Edi, too, runs a
similar business and is reluctant to give further information
about his set up except to say that many ex-soldiers are involved
in providing security services today.

However, the worst thing to have happened in recent times in
the city is the breakdown in trust between one human being and
another. Expatriates Monica and Arvind try very hard not to judge
all Indonesians by a recent experience. When they arrived home
after their end-of-the-year holiday last January, they discovered
that their trusted driver had vanished with their car. All
attempts to trace the driver have failed and today Monica prefers
to drive herself.

"I doubt I'll want to hire a driver for a long time," said the
marketing executive with a textile company.