Irony of Jakarta's motto

From Suara Karya

Jakarta's slogan expressing its strongly faithful character (Teguh Beriman) is ironic compared to existing realities in the capital city, there are numerous localities where people engage in immoral acts and the state of work discipline, traffic and cleanliness is poor.

Cleanliness is part of faith. Strangely, very few Jakartans are concerned with cleanliness. They are well aware that the capital city is vulnerable to floods. Cleanliness would help prevent the clogging of drains.

Another strange trait of Jakarta Teguh Beriman is the blatant dishonesty its citizens experience every day. It is unfortunate that the dishonest behavior also comes from the Jakarta DKI Administration.

One example is the supposedly express, limited passenger buses, bis patas. The bus was originally designed to be rapid and to have a limited number of passengers, as its name states. In fact these buses are overcrowded.

The community gets the impression that the word patas is only a hoax to increase the fare. This dishonesty is more brutal with the higher priced airconditioned patas buses which indulge in the same wrongdoing as the regular patas buses.

Do we still have faith in our hearts if we are not touched seeing such falsehood and other sinful acts?

I would like to appeal to Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso to change the city's slogan into a new motto with better relevance to the situation.

The campaign for national discipline heralded by President Soeharto could inspire the following motto: "Jakarta, honest and disciplined". (Jakarta Jujur dan Disiplin)

The principle of honesty will push us to conform our deeds to our words. The determination to behave with discipline will encourage us to participate in the national discipline program, making Jakarta a pilot project for it. It is from these perspectives that we will become strongly faithful.

T. HAKIM

Jakarta