30 Dec
Jakartass in Jakarta 2005
It seems customary at this juncture of the year to review the past twelve months and make all kinds of pledges of goodness for the year ahead. Having completed a calendar year of blogging, a total of 338 posting days, it’s probably in order to add my two pennerth of pontification.
Life for resident expats in Jakarta has not improved over the past year. I can’t speak for those expats on short-term postings, mainly because I don’t know any. The best place to look for such insights is still the Living in Indonesia website which continues to offer a mass, I hesitate to say ‘wealth’, of information. An individual perspective is also offered occasionally by a perceptive newcomer from Australia in his blog When in doubt, blame the traffic.
Those of us with embedded lives here regularly blame the traffic for the continued stress levels as well as other factors such as the resulting pollution, the continuing and endemic corruption, the blind disregard for personal space, the lack of customer service and the greed of those politicians who have not yet grasped the fact that they are now dependent on the goodwill of an electorate for their continued perks.
Some things are better in Jakarta. A real effort has been made to improve public transport, with the import of second-hand buses from Japan. One route terminates near my office and heads directly across the city to the side road leading to Jakartass Towers and I get a seat with adequate legroom, although dozens have to stand. None of us understand the Japanese script which remains or those pictograms indicating those seats reserved for the lame, pregnant and aged.
Thinking of the lame (synonym: halt) reminds me that new stainless steel bus shelters are being erected everywhere. If we’re lucky, or the police continue with their recent drive for greater traffic discipline, buses might actually start to stop at them just as the special Busway air-conditioned ones stop at theirs. More routes are currently being cut across traffic lanes and this augurs well for those of us opting out of the traffic jams.
With the removal of government subsidies and the near doubling of fuel costs in October, and all praise to SBY for having the courage to effect this, taxi drivers are having a bad time of it, even those who still offer the tarif lama (old rate). In general, it would appear that they are prepared to travel shorter distances than before as any income earned is income otherwise lost. This is quite a seismic shift in their thinking. However, there are still those who haven’t changed their mindset, one that, according to Madame Chiang, is still prevalent in Manila.
Finally, as the year ends in Jakarta I am pleased to report that Bintang beer has not yet risen in price.
So there’s still hope for the future.
I heard somewhere that Jakarta will soon start building some mass transit system in the form of a monorail or underground. I that correct? Bangkok is moving along fairly well, and that seems the only possible solution to gridlock. What is the story?
The monorail is already underconstruction. Take a look at the road near Plaza Senayan.
There have been MRT style projects on the drawing boards for ages. All of the big groups were peddling there favourites. Tutut had the tripple decker etc… Where they were all coming unstuck was the land issues. There was also the vexed and continuing issue of government subsidy or involvement in the financing.
The busway funnily enough has been a step in the right direction. My only critisism has been it has not been rolled out to Bekasi and tangerang. Also it has not been used as a lever to remove the old busses clogging Sudirman (something promised).
Getting the bus drivers to stop (and passengers also) at bus stops has been revolutionary! Also paying the drivers an ok wage (not commission) has also been a success.
They have even managed to get the buskers off the busway! I hope they extend a service down Rasuna Said as well.
We will not see a functioning court system this decade but if we have a better bus system by the end of 2006 tha would be revolutionary progress!
I wouldn’t expect the monorail any time soon. It has been stop-start ever since Megawati dug the first sod and prattled on about a futuristic Jakarta.
Apart from the land appropriation issues, adequate funding has yet to be arranged as has which technology to use, Korean, German or Japanese I think.
There is also the matter of the route which appears to be less than useful as it will run parallel to planned busway routes with limited links to the train network.
Another ‘pie-in-the-sky’ scheme is, if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphor, the suggested underground train route from Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to Kota in the north of the city.
Nice idea if you discount subsidence issues caused by the rapid depletion of groundwater, apart from the usual problems of attracting investors, land issues etc. etc.
For my money, the extension of the busway network ~ yes, to Bekasi, Tangerang and Cawang to Grogol (home to office for me) ~ would solve so many traffic problems.
Clean non-polluting buses attracting motorcyclists and car drivers, perhaps with the added incentive of a congestion charge as in London and Singapore, would make Jakarta much more bearable to live and work in.
Thanks for the positive feedback about my blog. I too hope I don’t get jaded, but I think I’m open minded and easygoing enough to not let things get to me over the next 3 years.
Keep up the great work!