Highway robbery

On Sept. 24, 1996, I came back to Jakarta after having spent several days in Singapore. I arrived at Soekarno-Hatta Airport at around 7 p.m. and, even though I have stayed in Jakarta for four months I still don't have a car, I had to take a taxi to get to my house in West Jakarta. I therefore took the first taxi at the head of the queue. It happened to be a President taxi, No. 4394 and was driven by a 50-year-old man.

As soon as I entered the cab, the driver tried to negotiate the price of the journey. I told him that I wasn't a tourist, that I was living and working in Jakarta and that I knew the exact fare to my house (Rp 16,000 plus Rp 7,000 for tolls). I therefore asked him to use his meter. He yelled but eventually put it on.

We drove through the airport when suddenly the car started to judder. The driver stopped the taxi on the side of the road (the meter indicated Rp 1,770 at the time) and got out to check what was wrong. He opened the hood of the car and seemed to tinker with something. He then got back inside the cab and began to drive.

To my biggest surprise, within 30 seconds the meter jumped to Rp 2,500, then Rp 3,500 to finally show Rp 5,600 when we reached the airport exit. I told the driver I knew perfectly well that he had tampered with the meter. He yelled again and told me he wanted Rp 20,000 to drive me home.

As it was night and in a remote area I agreed to pay, knowing that it was "only" Rp 4,000 above the normal fare. The worst thing in this pathetic story is that the driver not only cheated me, as the majority of taxi drivers try to do in Jakarta, but robbed me as surely as if he put a knife to my throat. He knew full well that I had no choice but to pay. Otherwise I would have had to walk at night, with my luggage, for the few hours it would have taken me to return to the airport, or sleep on the side of the road.

This unfortunate experience, together with a lot of others, exposes a sad fact. It seems the kindness of the Indonesian people is no more but a myth... in Jakarta at least.

STANISLAS SAINCLAIR

Jakarta