Today is Monday, a starting working day in the week. Normaly people rush to the office earlier than in other working days. Having known this situation I start my commuting activities at 05.00 AM, driving my car toward my office. Thanks God, in these days the Subuh time is at 04.05 AM so that I still have an ample time to prepare everything before began driving.
But unfortunately, kicking out at 05.00 AM from my house in this morning seemed quite a little bit late (still), since I was then suddenly stuck into traffic jam, just a few hundred meters from home. People seem having the similar line of thinking as I do. They went as early as possible to avoid traffic jam that might cause them pinned down in the traffic. As a result everyone get stuck at the time, at the same spot.
Actually no one likes to drive from Bekasi, which is about 35 km away from the heart of Jakarta. In Saturday and Sunday it will take only 30 minutes to get to Monas or my office in Jalan Thamrin. In working days, it depends on what time you will start. If you start from home at 05.00 like what I do everyday, you will be "safe" and arrive at office around 45 minutes or one hour later. But if you go from home at 06.00 or worsely at 07.00, then you have to be ready to hold your brake and clucth alternatively for almost 2,5 or three hours.
For me, if there is no important agenda except in-house works, I will prefer to use my bicycle to nearest train station. From there I will take express train to Tanah abang in Central Jakarta, but stop at Sudirman station. Lastly I will take bus to the office. Efficien, clean and healthy. There is trend of professionals to use this method of going to office. The problem is that Jakarta is not Kuala Lumpur or Singapore that has adequate train route so that people from different areas can be transported to many corners of the city, without need other modes.
There are discussion here and there about mass transportation (train and monorail) that will be built in Jakarta, but I myself feel pessimistic about the ideas. Corruption, collusion and nepotism that were shouted by students and anti-corruption fighters in 1998 still become monsters who will undermine any development plan for public interest. They pretend to support the concept, but when the budget realization take place, they will cut into slices and some will be put in their own pocket or their gangs. No shy, no shame. When there is cash in (to pocket) everything is smooth.
It seem that the power also plays the role. If there are 2 ministers in our government cabinet, we feel as if we were seeing 3 small kings who hold their small kingdom (ministries) for their own good. No one can touch their domain or jurisdiction, no lay man - nor other minister. We do not feel there is a central, integrated and strong government working for us, but the reverse is true. I myself conclude, after a long reading, that never in any country in the world did a national railway program run successfully without involvement of the highest position in the country, be it the president of prime ministry. How can you expect a monorail program will run smooth with just a support from a regional governor such as Sutiyoso, even though in his military careeer, he was ever become commander of the presently president?
That is why the monorail projects that has been initiated by Sutiyoso now abandoned. No one cares and no investor will take risk by, for example, take over the project. It is not because of the commercial risk they should take, but more than that, they are afraid in such a way that even a military general like Sutiyoso should become "a tennis ball" that should run here and there to save the project.....
Some people told be that another project is threatened to "die before it's born". The project of building railways from airport to the center of the city until now is still "under discussion" from its inception in 2008. They already finished 2 years to discuss about the plan and they have not finished it yet! How many years more they neeed to complete? What a creeping turtle!
During my humble life, I have ever visited London, Basel, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Antwerpen, Madrid and Washington, and enjoyed so much their city-train transport system (traim, light railway) which is integrated with other public transport mode such as bus system. This system is only (maybe) the one that Hongkong and Japanese cities that can apply. For South East Asian cities, even country such as Singapore, still uses separated system for bus and train.
When will Jakarta have an integrated system like the ones operating in those western countries? May be what we can do is we dream. But the problem is that the dream then become long, long dream. Because, no one sure it will take into reality...Even when we are already gone... Some say even when this world happens to end....
Allah know the best
Dimuat juga di http://cecepmhe.blogspot.com/2010/11/everlastng-dream.html