IN JAKARTA
WHEN family and friends heard that I was headed to Indonesia for a short work stint, they fed me with much well-meaning advice on how to keep myself safe, by avoiding imitation blue taxis for instance (the trusted taxis are blue taxis from Blue Bird Group).
I understood where they were coming from. Anyone who keeps up with the news may assume that Jakarta is a dangerous place; after all there have all been sporadic episodes of religious violence and terrorist attacks recently.
Three things have struck me in my three weeks thus far in Jakarta.
Initially, I was impressed by the apparently high level of security. Every car is searched before it enters a major hotel or office building. Visitors to a building, shopping mall or cinema have to walk through a metal detector and have their bags checked.
But after going through several days of such routine security checks, I began to realise that most guards barely glanced at the contents of my bag after opening it. Some did not even unzip my bag. I noticed car boots and doors that were opened but slammed shut almost immediately during vehicle checks.
I have since realised that these checks – while serving a purpose – are sometimes more for show; perhaps to assure residents that efforts are being made to keep them safe.
The second thing I have noticed is Jakarta's infamous traffic snarls and its accompanying pollution.
"Is that fog or haze?" asked a friend when viewing a photo I snapped of traffic gridlock at peak hour. "Neither. Pollution," I chuckled, recalling the times when I woke early to catch the sunrise only to be sorely disappointed with a mere faint glow illuminating the horizon as the sun was obscured by pollution.
The fact that the city is perpetually shrouded in smog does not come as a surprise given that Jakarta is home to 6.5 million vehicles, 98.6 per cent of which are privately owned.
In a move to tackle road congestion and pollution, the city has car free days every last Sunday of the month where an entire stretch of a bustling road is closed.
On such days, it is quite a fascinating sight to see people using the road for sports activities like cycling, jogging, badminton and football. Mobile libraries and performances by musical groups have been known to make their way there as well.
This creative measure has turned out to be so popular that starting from July this year, Jakarta will be having car free days twice a month.
The third thing is related, in many ways, to the second — the traffic that creates the pollution.
One quirk I have observed is the three-in-one system of easing traffic congestion. During rush hour, a car must contain three people or more in order to use the main thoroughfares downtown.
When I first arrived here, I used to wonder why there were so many people- youths, mothers with babies slung over their chests and elderly, standing at the sides of the roads flagging not taxis, but private cars. Perhaps they were hitchhikers, I reasoned, but then I found out that they were actually "car jockeys".
These enterprising people are actually making a living out of volunteering to be "passengers" for a small fee of Rp 10,000 or Rp 20,000 (S$3) so that the driver is able to drive along busy roads at peak hours. The driver will then drop off the car jockeys once he manages to pass through those regulated roads.
The city is tackling pressing issues like security, traffic congestion and pollution in overt and interesting ways, but it remains to be seen if these measures are really effective. For example, road closures at major busy roads simply divert traffic to the smaller parallel roads and jam them up.
Long-term solutions and political will to implement them are needed to resolve this bottleneck, traffic or otherwise.