Kartini Day spirit gets caught in traffic

Agnes Winarti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 04/22/2008 10:40 AM  |  City

In the spirit of Kartini Day, Greater Jakarta train passengers showed mixed responses to the one-day policy of giving up seats to female passengers, while busway female drivers enjoyed the rare opportunity to work in stylish outfits, hairdos and makeup.

All the way from Depok Lama train station to Kota transit station, Ira, 48, was standing in front of a 20-something man, who sat comfortably in his seat on the crowded train.

Ira said she heard about the one-day policy through loudspeaker announcements just before she got on the train.

She commented on the lack of effectiveness of the policy, "but it is useless to hope for a free seat from an ignorant person".

"I don't mind standing in the train all the way to my destination. I'm used to it, anyway," she said, while rushing to buy a ticket from Kota to Bekasi to visit relatives.

Railway staff responsible for checking the train to remind male passengers to give up seats to women were nowhere to be seen.

Azwir, 49, who was taking the train from Kota to Depok, said that putting women first was a matter of awareness rather than rules. "We cannot enforce sanctions on that."

He said that most male passengers gave up their seats to women when he got on the Bekasi-Kota train at 5:30 a.m.

He explained, while giving up his seat to a woman with a child, that this was probably because in the early morning people felt fresher than later in the day. He went on, "people here are indifferent to each other, especially strangers. In my hometown in West Sumatra, men are accustomed to giving seats to women in public transportation ..., either trains or buses,"

Sunarti, 45, who got on the train at Pasar Minggu station, said she was often given a seat by a man whenever she brought a child with her. "But I guess everything depends on each person."

The one-day policy to give up seats to female passengers was only announced in main stations, like Kota and Bekasi. A train ticket officer at the University of Indonesia station said he was not even aware of the one-day policy.

In the meantime, a TransJakarta bus operator celebrated the birth date of Indonesian women's emancipation heroine, Kartini, by requiring all female drivers to wear traditional dress, such as kebaya.

A 28-year-old busway female driver on the Blok M-Kota corridor, Siti Aisyah, who was wearing a modern Muslim-style kebaya in red, said dressing up made her feel good for a change.

"Day to day, we are wearing the same boring white-and-black driver uniform. It's about time we go to work in style," she said, while steering the bus from one stop to another to pick up passengers.

She said the company provided dresses and makeup artists, but she preferred to wear her own dress and makeup.

"I woke up at 3 a.m. to prepare myself. But it is not troubling me at all, because it is only half-an-hour earlier than my usual day." Although wearing extravagant blouses, all busway female drivers were still wearing dark long pants for the sake of comfort in steering the large six-wheel buses.

Busway female drivers enjoy this rare opportunity twice every year, during the commemoration of Kartini Day on April 21, as well on the anniversary of Jakarta on June 22.

"During those two events ... busway female drivers ... become celebrities-of-the day, because the media are interviewing us," smiled Siti, a bachelor in accountancy, who did not want to swap her driving to return to her previous nine-to-five office job.

Siti's colleague, 37-year-old mother of two Minarni, said she enjoyed the unique way of celebrating Kartini Day. Minarni quickly added, "But I don't expect it to be done on a daily basis because wearing a corset inside this outfit is such torture!"

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