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2012-12-30 - 11:58 p.m.

Perhaps I need to be a bit more careful here, since some of my friends, family members, and neighbours ride motorcycles. I don't want to end up generalizing people.

However, with the reality around me, it's hard not to - especially if you happen to be on the more at disadvantage here. I believe I'm not the first and the only with this issue. Others have written similar stuff out of their similar experiences to mine.

It's difficult when you have a hate/love relationship with the bikers in this city. You love it when you have some reliable 'ojek' bikers to take you around when you're in a hurry. (Although it's rather costly compared to other public transportations, at least it's much faster!) If your best friend can take you for a ride on their motorcycle for free, that's even better. (Hehe.) Traffic in Jakarta is a major killjoy. No need to say more.

However, as a pedestrian, your daily life on the streets of Jakarta is often like an earthly, urban hell with the existence of these awfully mad bikers. ('Mad' as in either crazy, angry, or even...both at once!) For example, you can't stroll peacefully along the sidewalk without the risk of getting honked or yelled at by these mad bikers, because - according to them - you're getting in their way. (Excuse me?!) If you step aside (sometimes bumping against the building wall or almost getting your foot into a sewer, yuck!) and let them pass, they win.

However, if you choose not to let them have their way by telling them off or just ignoring them and pretending to be deaf, it can get worse. They can either keep honking at you until you turn really deaf or step aside, calling you names for giving them a 'hard time', or hurting you physically - just because they think they can and it's 'justified' - according to them, again. (Oh, and it gets even better if you're a woman alone, because they think you can't - and won't - fight back. If you do, they simply call you a bitch and can hurt you even worse.)

Want to cry for the help of the local authority? Well, good luck with that. I once read an online article where a male citizen of Jakarta was stunned by a police officer's reaction to the similar pedestrian vs. mad biker case. The officer blamed him for not giving in, for not letting the mad biker get what he wanted. It's like...hey, you're sane. You're the one with the (better?) brain. Why cause yourself the unnecessary pain?

Good question. Maybe it's because we pay tax regularly, but don't get the civil rights we really deserve? I mean, come on. As a regular resident, I don't feel like I belong here anymore. I deserve to feel safe, but that's not what I get!

This is also the place where you can feel completely alone in the crowd. No joke. On one side, these mad bikers are also naturally talented bullies. If we happen to go against one of them regarding our pavement rights whatsoever, they seem to have the need to call for a proper 'back-up'. Cry wolf as they may, for the sake of their 'bruised' ego. Apparently, they're smart enough to know the meaning of 'strength in numbers'. Oh, wow. Let me cheer and do a cartwheel on that!

On the other side, the bystanders are mostly ignorant or just playing safe. It doesn't matter if they happen to be the same victims of the similar injustice. They'd rather turn a blind eye or a deaf ear, then walk away. That's it.

Some of them might turn to you, trying to calm you down with rather empty, meaningless words like:"Patience. Let it go." Others might also come up with bitter statements like: "This is how Indonesians roll. Welcome to Jakarta. Deal with it!"

Not much I can really do, eh?

Hmm, maybe not quite. You see, these mad bikers also have the same habit of swerving through between a vehicle parked on the side and the pavement - believing they're always small enough to go through. In some parts of this city, be ready to get hit by one of them if you happen to step forward to open the cab-door in front of you without looking sideways first. Yes, that's true. Once it happened to me in TB Simatupang. I didn't realize there was one mad biker speeding from my right as I stepped forward to get into a taxi. I only looked when I heard him skid to an abrupt halt.

Then suddenly, another speeding mad biker crashed from behind the first one. I didn't waste any time. I opened the cab-door and simply dived into the backseat - head first. (Ouch!) It was also the first time I could close the cab-door with my foot - a weird process I'd never want to do again.

Why did I flee? Again, I didn't want to confront (or be confronted by) those mad bikers. It wasn't my fault they'd collided, but we know how it works with them. It's always other people's faults, and they'd have loved it even more to pin the whole thing on me. Well, what else is new?

Let's just pray that these mad bikers won't get any worse next year. Why? Just like every decent resident who pays regular tax, my patience is wearing thin. It's a matter of when before finally...'boom'!

You don't want that, do you?

R.

 

 

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