EDITORIAL : THE JAKARTA POST, INDONESIA

 

On serious alert

 

First there were the serial book bombs in Jakarta last month. Next came the suicide bomb inside the mosque within the Cirebon City Police headquarters, which killed the alleged bomber and wounded 28 others last week Friday. And the latest, the finding of nine bomb packages at Gading Serpong in Tangerang, Banten province, and the subsequent arrest of 19 alleged bomb suspects in several Indonesian cities on Thursday.
We praise the Police’s quick response, particularly the arrest of the bomb suspects and the finding of bomb packages in Tangerang, which were reported to be more powerfully explosive than the bomb that exploded at the JW Marriott Hotel in July 2009.
It is therefore reasonable that the Police immediately issued the “Siaga Satu” (the top security warning alert in the country) and deployed officers to various key strategic locations, including churches, as Christians commemorated Good Friday. Such an extraordinary alert warning was necessary, as the nation had witnessed bomb attacks on churches at Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations in the past.
The Police have yet to identify the motives behind the bomb attacks in the country this year, or find any connections between the incidents, including the alleged perpetrators’ possible links with regional terror network, Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), as had often been the case in the past.
In the meantime, all Indonesians must exercise caution and remain personally alert during this time of bombing terror as the perpetrator(s) have been changing their modes of operation from traditionally linear to random targets and due to the Police’s limited personnel to cover the country’s vast archipelagic areas. Cautionary measures, such as immediately reporting to the Police any suspicious goods or strangers in their neighborhoods, are expected and greatly appreciated.
Bombing attacks have apparently become a trend in the post-New Order era. Various analyses have been undertaken in order to understand the progressive trend and motives behind the attacks, including looking at poverty and irresponsible religious teachings as the root causes. While efforts to tackle poverty and a campaign against such wrongful religious teachings will be a long-term agenda, measures to anticipate and contain the bombing attacks should become the immediate priority.

 

Degrading services

 

When the railway operator began expanding the operation of air-conditioned trains in 2008, many motorists began using public transportation, which was more convenient and reliable. However, many train users have now begun to complain about the degradation of its services: The air-conditioning often does not function and the departure schedule is no longer on time. It is a regrettable situation.
Currently, state-owned railway operator PT KAI Jabodetabek Commuter operates two kinds of air-conditioned train cars — economic class with a ticket price at Rp 4,500 (about 50 US cents) and express class with ticket prices between Rp 8,000 to Rp 11,000. With a daily operation of about 400 train cars across the city the train normally provides a service every 30 minutes.
The popularity of the commuter trains among middle-class employees could be seen from the increasing number of private cars, which fill every parking lot at all railway stations across the Greater Jakarta area and the increasing number of passengers, who always pack air-conditioned train cars, particularly during rush hour. Commuters started enjoying and even relying on the relatively fast trips with the commuters’ train rather than when they had to drive their cars, frustrated by traffic gridlocks that occurred nearly daily on all roads of the city.
Service degradation is reportedly caused by the financial difficulty that means the railway operator is no longer able to cover operational costs. The operator has several times proposed to increase the ticket prices in trying to solve the financial difficulty. But the government has vetoed the increase of the ticket prices, fearing it would spark public opposition.
Whatever the reason, it is regrettable that the railway operator cannot maintain its services. The government, which has intervened in on the operator, needs to offer a solution, including the possible use of taxpayers’ money to cover the operational costs of the commuter trains.
The government could not allow PT KAI to downgrade its services because of the financial problem because in nearly every city across the world, public transportation always becomes the government’s responsibility.
Unfortunately, a similar situation also happens with the Transjakarta busway. When the Jakarta city administration started to operate the first busway corridor in 2004 from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in Central Jakarta, there was a mood of optimism among bus users.
Busway users have also been disappointed due to the degradation of busway services. The shortage of buses deployed along the Transjakarta busway corridors has disrupted departures. That excludes the users’ selfish attitude in ignoring good norms, such as queuing prior to entering buses and prioritizing females, the elderly, pregnant women and the disabled.
We believe that both Jabodetabek Commuter and Transjakarta busways could operate with better services if relevant parties, particularly the Jakarta city and central governments, make strong commitments to developing the transportation modes.
Therefore, stronger commitment is needed from all relevant parties to improve public transportation because it is the only way to solve traffic congestion in the city.