Why ... ?

If the Rolling Stones had been born in Indonesia, I'm quite sure they'd have entitled their song, Sympathy for the Consumer.

Why, when I order a cola in a fast-food restaurant, do I get a cup filled one-third with ice when the drink itself is already cold from the dispenser?

Why, when I do my shopping, do supermarkets fail to give me my exact change? Those odd Rp5s and Rp10s do add up you know.

Why, when I enquire about a home appliance at a store, can the assistant only tell me its color (am I blind?), its great quality (bagus! bagus!) when the store is hardly going to admit to selling a product of poor quality?

Why am I (perhaps) the only person to have found out what airport tax is for and where it goes?

Why, when I slice the top off a soft ice cream, can I see a gaping hole reaching right down to the bottom of the cone?

Why, when I read a housing developer's brochure am I constantly bombarded by information such as "electricity available", "water available", "fresh air available", "exclusive surroundings"? Would any developer think of constructing homes in Jakarta if these were not available? In addition, totally non- informative descriptions such as "what you and your family have always wished for". Excuse me, but are developers telepathic? And what about "bebas banjir"? Are we, the consumers, to infer that some developers intentionally build on plots that do indeed flood?

How many of us (and let's not lie to ourselves) have actually bothered to empty out unused purchases from tins/packets and weighed them to see whether the net weight indicated on the label is actually how much we get?

Why are the majority of letters to the editor in Kompas complaining about how badly consumers are treated? If YLKI (The Indonesian Consumers Association) does not have the financial muscle to assist us then what hope is there for us? I can only suggest that the organization concentrate less on defending the consumer and more on protecting him. How about all 193 million of us donating those Rp5 and Rp10 coins. We might eventually get enough into YLKI's coffer so it can afford to protect us all.

If anyone reading this letter is sitting in a fast food restaurant sipping his coca-cola (with ice, naturally) after having failed to get his exact change, I can offer him my deepest sympathy. I can, at the present time, do no more than put pen to paper to vent my frustration and that I have done.

JEREMY D.R. GIBBONS Jakarta