How has 2012 treated you so far? While some of you, probably the Mayan prophecy diehards, are still recovering from a prolonged New Year celebration, some of us have had to return to real life.
At this time of the year, real life in the country involves rainy season, a heavy dose of tropical rain that is actually much-needed to wash away dirt and dreariness from the half-year-long dry season. As a child, I loved this season.
Either curling up in bed listening to the sound of rain, or enjoying the scent and view from the inside of a moving vehicle. It was one of my life’s small blisses.
That is a small luxury that I, and many Jakartans, can no longer relate to.
In the past few years the rainy season has turned into an urban horror story, when blocked waterways pushed excess water onto the streets, where dirt turned them into sludge, then halted the already jammed traffi c into a standstill — hour after hour.
There are many sophisticated ways to count how much Jakarta and its people suffer from overused petrol, wasted productive hours, extra costs to business opportunity losses.
But there is never an adequate way to quantify the loss of energy, fi ghting spirit, or just general positive attitude whenever someone has to trudge along the impassable streets.
Just glance over what Jakartans colorfully tweet during rush hours, including, um, the merry ways to incorporate our governor’s name into swearing.
A friend missed my after-hours birthday party recently because she had no energy to brave the path from her offi ce on southern Jl. Fatmawati to downtown Plaza Indonesia, which she likened to “parting the Red Sea a la Noah”.
I’m lucky to live near downtown and mostly work from home, but even I’ve had to reschedule or cancel various engagements, business and social, because the traffi c, raining or not, was simply not worth all the fuss.
Growing up I’ve always been known as an outgoing, people person — yet lately I feel like I’ve been confi ned to and trapped in a city that wouldn’t let me freely move nor breathe.
Even without personal economic demands, Jakartans aren’t that much different to caged animals. It is no wonder many of us suffer from all kinds of physical and social illnesses.
Jakarta is up for its governor election this year. I have only three things to say to all aspiring candidates — adequate mass transportation system, trash management, and sewage canals. Yes, in that order; even before any grand plans.
An adequate and affordable mass transportation system will quickly reduce the need for personal vehicles.
We’ve toyed with monorail and subway ideas, and fi nally somewhat settled with the Transjakarta buses, yet it’s not adequately serving the mass population, who’s been obtaining motorcycles on cheap credit and far from attracting the upwardly mobile, upper middle class Jakartans, still comfortably tucked into AC-ed cars. Fix it or provide us with something else.
There are the ugly details of trash management. With the rise of income, the more we consume, the more we discard.
Modern building managements have started to properly manage trash, but we live beyond offi ces, malls and posh apartments. The city needs to devise much better protocols and laws, not only for advanced waste management like recycling, but fi rst to induce Jakartans to actually follow them.
The fewer people throw garbage on sidewalks and sewers, the fewer blockages and less sludge there will be during the rainy season — it’s as simple as that.
Last but not least, remember those canals transporting water from establishments or rainfall.
Look around and see the latest trend in both residential and commercial buildings, to cover roadside sewers with concrete, mostly to make way for wider parking spaces.
Don’t these people have logic? How are raindrops supposed to be absorbed or channeled away? No wonder the streets are fl ooded an hour into rain, the water has no place to go! And how come the city turns a blind eye to this stupidity? I vote and pay taxes, so now it’s my turn to ask for the city government, which has been collecting my taxes, to get their act together and provide me and another 13 million inhabitants with a livable, living city.
I don’t need empty slogans on giant-sized billboards featuring smiling candidates. A candidate with clear, concise, deliverable plans will win my vote.
Forget the Mayan prophecy. Without better governance, Jakarta may just suck the life out of you before December.
— Lynda Ibrahim
