Plis Deh Jakarta!

Experts say, Jakarta’s public transport system needs an overhaul.

…there would be no ease-up in the daily traffic jams experienced by residents in the capital unless major changes were made to the public transportation system.

Who says Indonesia doesn’t have any smart people?

Force Vehicles Off Roads to Cut Gridlock: Expert

Curb vehicle ownership by additional taxes for 2nd or 3rd vehicle, road taxes, build effective public transportation systems, etc. etc.

So the statue above is apparently so offensive or something that it has to go, well at least according to FPI, and despite the protests from the artist, I Nyoman Nuarta. The Bekasi mayor has bowed down to pressure and ordered the destruction of the statue within 21 days, citing that it has no permit, among other reasons.

So I suppose we should tear down the Kereta Kencana statue and any other I Nyoman Nuarta work of art (as he always takes inspiration from living things), just because FPI says so.

And this from the group which tried to disband a transsexual rights forum, thinking it was a drag queen show. Bravo! At this rate, they’ll be running the city any time soon.

So, Jl. Pangeran Antasari, one of the busiest roads in South Jakarta, is going to be made a one-way street. Problem is, the Jakarta city administration hasn’t figured out which way.

Really increases my level of confidence in their planning capabilities…

The city administration is currently pushing their green building agenda into schools, which from the article, a green building is seemingly defined:

• less use of wood to decrease the need of chopping down forersts
• use of solar panels for power (the article says the use of ‘panel tata surya’; I assume that’s a mistype)
• better ventilation as to decrease the need for air conditioning
• more efficient use of water and electricty
• independent waste management, whatever that means
• and more use of wood in building construction (yes, the article contradicts itself)

They say it is part of an effort to educate children on the need of eco-friendly buildings, with the bill going up to a total of Rp 16 billion for two school locations.

In the meantime, many schools, even in Jakarta, are in no condition to be used as a place to learn. The schools might become, um, a bit nicer, but what’s to say about the general living conditions of the surrounding neighborhood?

The local MUI of Banten has recently declared haram the proposed statue of Sultan Banten Maulana Hasanudin, which in a cooperation between the South Tangerang City Administration and some private partners, would have been erected in one of the busiest roundabouts in the Pamulang area.

I haven’t the slightest idea on why this Sultan is so important as to erect a statue of him, but the MUI is apparently concerned that it will become a place of idol-worship towards the Sultan’s statue, which is blasphemy. Rightly so they say that the money can be better spent elsewhere.

So any comments on the other statue already standing (and protested) in the Menteng area, MUI?

In a somewhat signature act of far-flung vision with terrible planning, the outgoing governor, Sutiyoso, launched the city water taxis in June 2007, spending Rp 200 billion on the facilities with a pilot project serving a 1.7 km route with two 28-person boats. So where is it now?

The first few trips failed when, among others, garbage got stuck in the boat’s rotors. This, and not to mention that apparently not all of Ciliwung River can be dredged to serve such a water transport service.

So Rp 200 billion and ambition = nothing happening.

This is definitely one of the best decisions made this year, whether or not it actually gets carried out. So instead of using totally new material for road reparations, the city administration is planning to recycle basic material like asphalt from previously used material.

The amount recycled is not much, but it’s a start. Next step would be figuring out how to use the hundreds of tons of garbage Jakartans throw out each month and use it as cheap building material. I wonder if any of the distinguished universities have made any studies into this…

I was always under the impression that the city’s traffic lights, however chaotic, had some sort of outdated underlying system coordinating everything. WRONG. It’s all just random – no wonder we need police officers maintaining the busy intersections at rush hour, or else it would be even worse.

Enter the research arm from UI, assisted by the University of Nagoya, who are trying to figure out on how to synchronize all the traffic lights in Jakarta, in a 4-year project that has started since 2008. They are saying, “synchronized traffic lights could be the answer”. Strangely, the head of the Traffic Management Centre did not know this project was going on.

Well, as long as everybody obeys the traffic lights, we could have a winner here. And that’s even assuming the traffic lights will be on.

Dozens of delman operators have been protesting the decree banning them from operating in the Monas area, where they have been basically kicked out for the last two years. An apparent promise to relocate them to Ancol or TMII apparently was an empty promise.

So why, you ask, have the delmans been banned from the Monas area? According to the mayor, it’s tough washing the horse shit off the park’s stone block, and all the urine and feces made the park all smelly and messy.

So instead of helping the delman operators manage their, um, exhaust better – which I’m pretty sure can be done – the government just cuts them out of their livelihood.

Let’s try to breakdown the logic of this problem:

So 55 five buses for the Transjakarta armada are not operating. Why? No gas.

Why no gas? No money to pay for it.

Why no money to pay for it? The Transjakara general services department has not given the bus operators money to pay for the gas.

Why haven’t Transjakarta paid the operator money for gas?

And that, my friends, is the real question.

Two boys sift through discarded waste floating on a river in Jakarta on Friday. (Photo: Adek Berry, Reuters) - The Jakarta Globe

So apparently, Jakarta has won 5 Adipura awards, which are awards issued for environmental awareness. All 5 Jakarta municipalities given the awards were the ones who managed to keep their areas clean, and supposedly being the greenest and cleanest in Indonesia.

Perhaps they kept the streets clean by sweeping everything into the river…