Merak harbor

Merak harbor

From Pos Kota

On Saturday Feb.17, three days prior to the Idul Fitri
holiday, my family and I went to the Damri bus terminal in
Jakarta at 6:00 a.m. to catch an early bus to Palembang in South
Sumatra. There was not one single bus at the terminal.

We then went to the Kalideres terminal in West Jakarta and
boarded a bus which only took us as far as Merak. Massive traffic
congestion held us up at Cilegon. We decided to travel the
remaining 13 kilometers to Merak on foot although we had our 4-
year-old child with us.

At Merak harbor we saw a sea of people waiting for the ferries
to make the crossing to Sumatra. Many would-be passengers
suffocated and fainted.

If only the port authority were more professional, the amount
of waiting passengers would not have reached the thousands. I
deplore the lack of professionalism of the harbor personnel.

We finally decided to cancel our plan to celebrate Idul Fitri
in our hometown.

I think the Merak port authority fell far short in making the
necessary preparations to anticipate the increased flow of
passengers.

KUSNADI

Bekasi, West Java