Just give me back my Jakarta!

JAKARTA (JP): When Art Buchwald, a Californian, went to the pollution-free area of Colorado, he felt miserable. He had been so used to breathing the smoke and fog in his over-crowded city that he could not stand the fresh mountain air.

To ease his misery, the host brought an old vehicle with foul exhaust fumes for him to breathe. That helped, but still, he was uncomfortable with the clear blue sky. He needed to get back to his smoggy city!

I had the same feeling when I drove along the roads of Jakarta a couple of days before Lebaran Holiday. The traffic was so smooth and quiet that I was scared to death. I had been used to heavy traffic along with ear-splitting honks and a reckless style of driving. "What in the world is happening to my Jakarta?" I kept wondering.

I felt relief when I passed the Majestic area and found a congested intersection. This could satisfy my desire for excitement. But unfortunately, a bunch of security personnel showed up and robbed my pleasure. They stood in the middle of the jam, gave directions to drivers and put everything under control. Soon the traffic flowed smoothly.

"This is ridiculous," I thought bitterly. "Exactly what are they doing here? Shouldn't they flee and leave the traffic management to the hands of Pak Ogah?" (Pak Ogah are unofficial traffic attendants who usually stand at intersections and U-turns to make money by deliberately helping drivers escape the hassle.)

Seeing so many security personnel in sight, you would think they only work at the wrong time. Where the hell are they when they are most in need? In "normal" conditions, when people have to face threats from pickpockets, robbers, and illegal fee collectors, the so-called security people are hard to find.

In order to grab the old feeling of the Jakarta transportation system, I parked my car at a roadside and hailed a cab. Usually, I have to wait a long time to find a cab with the old fare. But now it was easy. A light-blue taxi approached me and the driver greeted me sweetly .

He was still smiling when I asked him to go through the usually crowded area. It was strange. Normally, he would refuse and ask the passenger (sometimes rudely) to find another taxi. And, needless to say, this time it was with the old fare!

For your information, the municipality of Jakarta has recently made yet another "messy" decision; implementing the monstrous hike of the taxi fare, while at the same time allowing some taxi companies to remain operating with the old fare. Consequently, taxis with the old fare are in demand and hard to come by. The city councils, who previously refused the hike, are silent (or silenced?).

Probably, they are busy traveling. You know, in the era of reform government, traveling abroad is a new trend among legislators, city councils, and government officials. Learning from the president, they come up with various excuses to spend the public's money for travel. "Making comparative studies and socializing" are the most common ones.

Talking about socializing, it's the new thing that the legislators are getting very fond of. And to show they mean business, some of them travel around the globe just to socialize and to inform others of the decree they made in a meeting. What a waste of money!

With the advance in communication facilities nowadays, people hardly need to travel. You can talk face to face with people who are thousands of miles away through sophisticated means of communication. Presentation of programs (or a decree, if you like) can be done by setting up a conference involving several parties in different places of the world at the same time. After all, that's what modernity is all about. The only drag is, by conducting a long-distance presentation, you can't go sight seeing on the public's account.

Back to Jakarta in the holiday season, I really miss the commotion. Everything is quiet and boring, demonstrations are few and far between, bus drivers do their job in an orderly manner, and political celebrities refrain from their usual battle.

By the time I wrote this story, however, a friend called. "If you're still longing for commotion, I have good news for you. A bombing spree is going on. There were bomb blasts at several places in Jakarta and in other provinces last night. Sixteen people were killed."

I was stunned! A bombing spree! No! That's the last thing people need now. Bombing will result in death and injury of innocent people. The government must take a quick and real action to stop this. And the public demand explanation as to why it happened and who are responsible. The usual "we will find out" and "we will proceed in conformity with the prevailing rules and regulations" won't do. Show us the truth, and pronto.

As for Jakarta, we don't mind dealing with traffic jams, bad services, Pak Ogah, three-in-one jockies and all that. But please, not a bombing spree! Just give us back the old Jakarta.

-- Carl Chairul