Ticket scalpers at Gambir station

Ticket scalpers at Gambir station

From Media Indonesia

On Aug. 31, 2001 at around 6 p.m. seeing the long queue outside the ticket booth for business and executive class trains plying the Jakarta - Bandung route, I switched to the queue for tickets at the Argo Gede (luxury express) train booth for the same route.

The announcement at the ticket booth indicated that 148 seats were available for the last departure at 8:30 p.m. I was the twelfth person in the queue and remained in the queue as the ticket booth would be opened for the sale of tickets at 7:30 p.m.

When there were only a few business class tickets left, some of the passengers joined in the queue for the Argo Gede train. At the same time, disregarding everybody's objections, several men forced their way in and I was pushed back to position number 19 in the queue.

The first man who cut into the queue was casually chatting to a man with crew-cut hair and number 33 on his shirt. A few moments later the latter was sitting in one of the ticket booths. He was obviously an employee of PT KAI (the state-owned railway company).

The men who disrupted the queue were none other than ticket scalpers, as was apparent from their close relationship with the PT KAI employees.

What made me feel lazy to make any protest was a story from someone who had complained to the officers and got this as the answer, "Ticket scalpers are also human beings, just like any one of us."

To ticket scalpers, who are also human beings, my plea is, "Do stand in line and be polite just like any other human being should."

CHRIS WANGKAY

Jakarta