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