Leisure turns to tragedy

Leisure turns to tragedy

The death of the spokesman for Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), Raymond van Beekum apparently shocked the media. As most of IBRA activities relating with media had been handled by Raymond and his colleague.

Raymond's death also related to media activity. He invited journalists to join a kind of workshop at a hotel in Lido, Ciawi, West Java. After the workshop Raymond, and other IBRA staff as well as journalists chose rafting in the Cisadane river at the Genteng village, Bogor, as an outdoor sport.

No one expected that the leisure would turn into a fatal tragedy. The flash flood suddenly hit the rafts, and almost everybody, including Raymond, was thrown into the river.

Raymond had been missing for three days, before he was found dead on Sunday.

The nature is always unpredictable. When people think that they can control the nature, the nature shows its power. Therefore, we - human beings - must be able to read the signals of the nature.

We just want to those arranging rafting in Ciawi, Bogor, must be better prepared with a monitoring team at the upstream, who provide with any signals of (possible) dangers at anytime.

-- Warta Kota, Jakarta