Vehicular terrorism

From Sinar Pagi

On Aug. 11, at about 5 p.m., I was riding a motorbike on my way from the Education and Cultural Ministry to Kelapa Gading Permai in Northern Jakarta.

When I reached Jalan Cemara in Menteng Dalam Selatan, I found a crowd of youngsters giving directions to motorists in the street. The street was jammed and I thought they were partly to blame since they were asking for change from motorists.

When I was stopped at the end of the street, my motorbike was hit from behind.

The funny thing was that the other motorist was the one who got mad, telling me to follow him to a nearby house while attempting to impound my ignition key. Failing that, he took my helmet by force and hit it against my back a number of times. Afterwards, he went into the house and I lost my helmet.

I'm sure that if I had followed him into the house, I might have been beaten up and extorted. Possibly, I would have lost my motorbike as well.

I was very scared after the incident and hope that it will not happen again.

I do not hold any grudge against youngsters who help direct traffic as long as they do not behave rudely.

I make a plea to the authorities in all my earnest to rid our streets of this kind of problem.

WAHYUDIN

Jakarta