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