http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/jakarta/the-many-daily-dangers-of-jakartas-public-spaces/491078 The Many Daily Dangers of Jakarta’s Public Spaces Ade Mardiyati | January 15, 2012
Saber volunteers clear nails from a street in Jakarta. Every morning group members take to the roads to make them a safer place for motorists. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal) s a Jakarta resident, I often have the feeling that our public spaces are accident scenes waiting to happen. I never know what to expect next. Over the years, I have experienced a number of accidents that should never have occurred but in hindsight were unavoidable. A few years back, I fell into a hole in the parking area of Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital in Central Jakarta when I went to pick up my mother from a routine check-up. The hole was nearly a meter deep and big enough across to accommodate an adult and it was only covered by a dirty, extremely thin piece of plywood; there were no warning signs. I was busy talking to my cousin who was pushing my mother’s wheelchair across the pavement and was not on the lookout for random holes lying in wait for unsuspecting pedestrians. Ha Ha Ha It all happened so fast that I can’t recall all of the details. What I remember clearly is the sound of the people around me — the car park attendant and some other men — laughing at my predicament. “Why did you choose to walk on the part covered by plywood?” one of the bystanders asked. I had apparently made his day. But why would the average person think to watch out for a woman-swallowing hole in the middle of the city? At the time, I was not sure which was more bruised: my right leg or my pride. After I arrived home, I rang the hospital’s call center and asked to speak to someone in charge of taking complaints. As I had expected, it was a wasted effort. All the operator said was, “I am sorry that it happened to you, but I don’t think we have a special division that handles such complaints.” Well, it is a government hospital. They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place; I am the exception to that rule. Last year, a similar thing happened to me. I was crossing the street in the Sudirman area on a rainy day, trying to get to the airport. The streets were flooded with water that was nearly knee-high, Jalan Sudirman looked more like a river than a grand boulevard and only a few brave motorcycles passed by. I was almost across the street when I stumbled into a hole and fell. I arrived at the airport in damp clothes, a first that I try not to think about. I am lucky it wasn’t too deep. And while this last story isn’t about street holes, it does have safety concerns. During a particularly heavy storm last week, I was stuck in a traffic that was hardly moving. I was looking out the window of the taxi when I saw a billboard and parts of a TransJakarta bus stop’s roof fly off and land just meters away. Later I learned that the windy downpour caused a number of billboards, tree and street lamps to fall all across the city, causing one fatality and several injuries. Land Mine Sweeping I may have been unlucky, twice, in my encounters with urban human traps, but I am not alone. Even on a day when there is no rain, driving a car, riding a motorcycle or even just walking down the sidewalk in Jakarta can be a tricky proposition. Not only do you have to be aware of careless drivers and wandering pushcarts, but you better pay extra attention to the numerous hazards that can be found on Jakarta’s streets, some of them put there on purpose, others arising from neglect. Areas such as Roxy (Central Jakarta), Daan Mogot (West Jakarta) and Cilincing (North Jakarta) have long been considered hazardous because the streets are frequently littered with objects put there just to cause flat tires — mostly nails, tacks and sharpened metal umbrella spokes . Fortunately, Saber, a community volunteer group has taken it upon itself to help Jakarta’s drivers with this problem. Saber was recently awarded a certificate of appreciation for its hard work ridding city streets of these “land mines.” The name Saber is short for sapu bersih, or clean it up in Indonesian. According to the head of Saber, Siswanto, the group has scooped up hundreds of kilograms of sharp objects from the streets since it was formed in August of last year. “We estimated that these people spread approximately 2 kilograms of either nails, tacks or umbrella spokes every time they take action in one location,” he said. “And they do it several times a day.” Siswanto added that there have been a number of people arrested for making the roads dangerous. “[One of the people arrested] repaired flat tires in the area where a lot of the sharp objects are found,” he said. “The motive is simple: get as many motorcyclists as possible to fix their flat tires. We have found 25 [tire repair] workshops within a three-kilometer stretch of road. Imagine that. In a normal situation, there wouldn’t be nearly as many such shops in such a small area.” Another motive is robbery, Siswanto said, which although rare is still a serious concern. “Drivers are forced to stop and then some people will immediately come up and pretend to help. That’s when the robbery occurs,” he said. Who is Responsible? “Technically, problems that involve infrastructure, road signs or billboards are the responsibility of departments such as Public Works, Transportation or the Park and Cemetery office,” said Aca Sugandhy, an urban planning expert at the University of Indonesia. “Everything that is in a public space should meet safety standards.” One of the main problems, Aca said, is maintenance and monitoring. “While [maintenance] should be the responsibility of a city office, they are often just turned into projects. Those who win the tender will get the project,” he said. The results of shoddy oversight, as we know, are holes in the road, fallen billboards or teetering street lights. And unfortunately, Jakarta residents can’t do much about the situation, Aca said. “All they could do is write a letter to a newspaper to let the public and the offices responsible know about it. This is the public’s right, but what will the offices do?” he said. To make things right, Aca said, the government should repair structures in public areas, look after road hazards and make sure public construction meets safety standards. “This also includes parking areas and advertisement displays in public, such as large TV screens,” he said. As for Siswanto, he said he and the other members of Saber are just trying to make Jakarta a little safer by doing it themselves. He said, however, that he is skeptical about the city tackling various urban hazards. “Until now we have no idea who is actually responsible for taking care of these things,” he said. “Whether it is the Jakarta administration, Satpol PP [public order officers], or the Jakarta police, I don’t know.” For the foreseeable future, you can do what I learned to do the hard way. Keep your eyes on the pavement ahead of you and try to avoid becoming a victim. And don’t bother calling the city to complain. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! 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