Plis Deh Jakarta!

A bus shelter was reportedly stolen Friday night – it was last seen still standing at 8 pm Friday, yet was already gone by Saturday morning. A local government officer reacted to this by saying ‘all Jakarta bus shelters must be accounted for to avoid similar incidents in the future.’

So forget ‘keep guard of your wallet’, you should keep guard of your bus shelter also! Next they’ll be stealing pedestrian crossing bridges. Thieves, steal the one in front of Pasaraya on the Iskandarsyah side, nobody uses it anyway.

So tomorrow, the city government will attempt to restart the smoking ban that supposedly is already in effect, yet ignored by many Jakartans.

In light of the recent alleged ban on Facebook, perhaps it is just simpler to ban everything instead of educating and reasoning. If people don’t understand why there is a ban, people wouldn’t care as much. Then again, all the reasoning in the world still hasn’t persuaded many Jakartans to wear helmets when riding motorcycles, either, except in the presence of police. Maybe there will be teams of police raiding smokers? Ha!

Hating people who cut lines on the Transjakarta queue, or people littering in the Transjakarta facilities?

This lady (and her group) has the right idea: she always scolds people cutting in line, and tells on people who litter. For most Jakartans, it may be a bit harsh, but maybe it’s just what we need – we live in the city where people wear motorcycle helmets because of police nearby, and not for their own safety.

Suara Transjakarta is, I think, a better way for citizen activism, compared to endless demonstrations in front of government buildings. These guys are not pro-government, mind you – they have their criticism towards the Transjakarta service as well. But they are working positively on how, at least, the average citizen can make Transjakarta better. Because if we want to make Jakarta more tolerable to live in, it’s also up to us, not just the government…

About a week ago, Tangerang residents protesting the disrepair of a long-ignored, damaged part of road, took one of the larger potholes, and turned it into a pond.

And when the authorities were asked of their response to the citizen’s protest? “We sent three letters.”

Well at least Tangerang gets a new lake/pond to replace their missing ones.

To declare their alliance for the upcoming presidential elections, the Megawati-Prabowo election team has selected the Bantar Gebang dumpsite for the location, for some sort of PR effect – I think they want to be seen as ‘close to the people’.

Yet I guess their definition of ‘leave the dumpsite as it has always been’ means setting up a huge stage and tent, placing down a walkway made of placing blocks, and so on, and is actually a few hundred meters from the actual dumpsite.

The only thing they did not try to get rid of was the smell – hopefully the smell is enough for the campaign team to not just make this into a PR event, but something to act on.

Apparently, the reason why Jakartans don’t throw their litter the right place, is because, there are no rubbish bins around. And why is this? They keep getting stolen!

Today, I’d like to propose something: let’s make some sort of online petition, or Facebook page/group, or something, for Citizens Against Noisy And Useless Police Escorts. Well, the term ‘police escorts’ might technically be incorrect, but you get my drift.

Every day, whether in traffic jams or not, we meet a small entourage of vehicles – the smallest being one expensive sedan like a Camry or Mercedes-Benz, escorted by an all-black Nissan X-Trail with police lights on top and four mean-looking guys inside – trying to get you off the road with their sirens so they can pass. Even when the roads are obviously jammed, the security vehicle still makes unending noises with the siren, and flashing all sorts of lights on the vehicles in front.

It gets so annoying that one time I almost didn’t give way to an ambulance, a vehicle we really, really should give way to.  Yet, these escort vehicles keep doing it, trying to get whoever they’re escorting just a few minutes faster to wherever the destination is. Just yesterday I saw a 3-car entourage with a police car in front and the black X-Trail at the back, doing its noise and light thing, trying to get through Sudirman traffic – the drivers in front of the entourage wouldn’t have been able to give way even if they wanted to, since the 2-lane road had already been overtaken by 3 lanes of traffic.

So, save us some irritation and use the energy to try to solve the actual traffic problem, eh boys?

Also, it’s an interesting greeting for visitors.