“Our dream is to see the streets in Jakarta clean of nails and we will not stop working until we achieve that,” deputy Saber chief Abdul Rohim told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

“We’ll always do our job, day by day. Nowadays, collecting a huge amount of nails has become a source of our inner satisfaction,” Abdul said.

The group first came to prominence earlier this month, when news spread that its members
collected 300 kilograms of nails from the streets of Central Jakarta between August and November
last year.

Most of the nails collected were purportedly between three and five centimeters long. Thirty percent of the collected nails were found in front of the presidential palace.

The community’s work has caught the attention of the Jakarta Police.

At a ceremony on Wednesday morning, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Untung Rajab personally gave each of Saber’s 14 members a certificate of recognition — and a set of equipment to help them keep the streets clean.

The equipment included alight-green reflective traffic vests and raincoats emblazoned with the emblems of the Jakarta Police, Sapu Bersih Ranjau and a baton.

According to Abdul, who works as a personal driver, he and his friends in Saber first established the community out of a shared frustration that their tires were frequently victims of the spread nails.

Abdul said that he personally began collecting nails from the streets two years ago.

Abdul said he was irritated at first because his bicycle’s tires were always pierced by nails when he passed along Jl. Daan Mogot when traveling between his home in East Cengkareng and his employer’s house in the Green Garden housing complex, both in West Jakarta.

“I began using fridge magnets to collect the nails. One day, a Kopaja bus driver saw what I was doing and gave me a bigger magnet, which I have used until now,” he said.

Eventually, nail-collecting became a daily activity for him.

“I usually collect the nails for around an hour before I am scheduled to arrive at my boss’ house at 7 a.m., and then for a few more hours on my way home in the evening.”

In August last year, Abdul met Siswanto, another man who shared his experience. It was the two who then decided to form Saber.

“Currently, the community has 14 members, spread over Central Jakarta, West Jakarta and East Jakarta,” said Siswanto, adding that he hoped that the police’s recognition of the group would motivate more Jakartans to join.

Siswanto said that the community members often faced threats when doing their jobs. “We were beaten, hit with bottles, almost hit by a motorbike, and received death threats.”

Some motorists who felt Siswanto and his friends were getting in their way on the road often derided them with shouts of contempt, he said.

However, members of the community have soldiered on.

Abdul, too, was apparently unphased. “[Threats are] part of the job. The most important thing
is that we’re doing something good for Jakarta,”

The head of security and safety at the Jakarta Police’s traffic directorate, Adj. Comr. Yakub Dedy Karyawan, said there were two motives behind nail traps, as perpetrators usually targeted motorcycle and car drivers during peak hours.

“The nails are usually placed by the perpetrators on the street at dawn around 3 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. and before dusk,” he said.

“When motorcyclists are in a rush for work or home, this ploy is usually used by tire-repair men to sell tires at a high price,” Yakub said.

“While for cars, the motive is purely criminal in that when victims pull over due to a flat tire,
the perpetrators take the chance to steal valuables from the cars,” he added. (mim)

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