Seat belts

Seat belts

From Bisnis Indonesia

As from mid-September the wearing of seat belts will be compulsory. Noncompliance of the regulation will be subject to imprisonment or a Rp 1 million fine.

The intention of the regulation is the safety of motorists. But it does not seem to be the proper time to implement the regulation in this period of monetary crisis.

Even without seat belts, a motorist would think a thousand times before driving recklessly because any collision would result in the emptying of his wallet due to the sky-high prices of automotive parts.

When the regulation was devised, surely nobody thought that in September 1998 the country would be in the midst of a deep economic crisis.

The price of seat belts was already very high before the monetary crisis. It must have increased in the meantime. Even the simplest set of seat belts probably costs hundreds of thousands of rupiah.

Not all car owners are rich. In the current period of crisis -- with layoffs everywhere -- many vehicles owned generally by the common people are being used as rental cars, which means an additional source of income.

The extra income cannot be used to buy seat belts because it is not even sufficient to buy rice and other basic foodstuffs.

The government should show its wisdom and review the regulation on the compulsory use of seat belts.

MARIA KEJORA

Jakarta