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ransportation Minister Ignasius Jonan'€™s announcement on Thursday of a blanket ban on app-based transportation services sparked an immediate buzz, which peaked when President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo publically objected to the prohibition and sputtered to an anticlimax with the ministry'€™s retraction of the policy at a press conference on Friday.

Jonan signed a circular, dated Nov. 9, which stated that motorcycle taxi (ojek) and private cars serving as public transportation and charging fares were in violation of Law No. 22/2009 on traffic land transportation and mandated the police to take '€œnecessary action'€ against the practice. The policy, Jonan said, had been formulated because app-based transportation services had '€œignited a controversy among the public and public transportation companies'€.

Technology has changed the game in the public transportation industry, particularly in Greater Jakarta, with the arrival of Uber Taxi, Go-Jek, Go-Box, Grab Taxi, Grab Car, Blu-Jek, Lady-Jek and other such apps. Consumers are the greatest winners, not only because they pay less for better services, but also because of the greater safety guarantees. The new players even protect their users with insurance, a practice foreign to their older competitors.

The apps, especially Go-Jek, enjoy fervent public support, and are seen as the innovation of the nation'€™s younger generations. Go-Jek has boosted employment, transforming the traditional ojek service into a more professional, affordable and comfortable transportation for traffic-weary residents.

It is surprising that the ban was initiated by Jonan, who rose to fame as head of state railway company PT KAI, for his innovative approach that turned the outdated rail firm into a public darling in just a few years. His opposition to innovation in this case is a grave error, as is his failure to forestall confrontation by enacting rigorous regulation on new technology and public transportation.

If applied, the policy would also destroy the livelihoods of traditional ojek drivers and rental car providers, as they too operate private vehicles for public use, and create more opportunities for unscrupulous officials to extort money from offenders.

Jonan should learn from the protracted legal cases brought against Uber in many cities in the world, cases that have tended to end in a loss for the plaintiffs. If he wants to regulate app-based transportation services, he cannot rely on the existing law that, as in the case of the ban, was executed too late.

If he is to regulate the industry, as indeed he must, his priority must be public safety, an increasingly important issue, rather than intervention to protect the services'€™ obsolete business competitors.