Let’s start with the truth: life in Jakarta is chaotic, unorganized, and basically messy. Chronic severe traffic jams, wild drivers, inhumane public transport, abysmal hygiene, vulnerability to yearly floods, and numerous violations of city zoning regulations-those are not even half of the trouble we see everyday. Probably you want to add a thing or ten to that list. The new governor Fauzi Bowo has not brought much change; he mostly continued the destructive progress his predecessor Sutiyoso started.
However, rarely would a Jakartan complain and really mean it. Most will only get to the level of grumbles that will be forgotten as life goes on. Drivers struggling in the traffic will yell to that annoying metro mini so loudly in the safety of his/her own car. There’s nothing the victims of the dysfunctional TransJakarta can do except silently endure the torture. We can only feel confused and betrayed when the city council went on with its absurd plan to start school hours at 6.30 AM. People talk about various things about the city that bug them each and everyday of their lives, and that’s it. These protests go nowhere and they get nothing out of it.
This condition also happens in a much bigger scale: the country we know as Indonesia. Presidents come and go, all kinds of people get highlighted in the political spotlight, and change is always underway; but I don’t see any revolution that makes life easier. Dealing with government offices and bureaucrats will still challenge your patience, wacky projects still get OKed, and our upcoming election in April borders on becoming a hilarious comedy. Our rich land, with its “green carpets of rice fields”, cannot feed its people; at the same time, our children are not learning the things they need from school. It reminds me of a Mark Twain quote: “Never let your schooling interfere with your education.”
Nevertheless, we continue to live in this horrible condition. Some say that they cannot do anything about it. Others say that they are so depressed that they keep on going through this earthly hell blindly. A common line is that “It’s Indonesia. We live here, we have survived this long, and we are living the Indonesian dream of life without rules. So shut up and act like a real Indonesian! Nothing can hurt you.”
It is not uncommon for Indonesians who spent a long time abroad to come back and experience a “reverse culture shock” from a humane city to the biggest kampung in the world. Their hearts pop out of their chests when they have to go through the typical Jakarta traffic. They search in vain for a public park for a nice stroll. The roadside panorama of proud-looking children smoking cigarettes was an impossibility in their minds. After a few days in tanah air, complaints and protests start to fly out of their mouths. “The government should change this, improve that, make it more efficient,” so on and so forth. Quite a few went public with their criticisms, thanks to weblogs and its friends. In fact, I just read an article in the Jakarta Post titled “It’s Indonesia, and I Can’t Complain”.
A few days after that, the reader’s opinion page was filled with various response. As expected, more than half of them contained, in one way or another, the standard Indonesian defense to protect the status quo. One accused the writer of being “too American” after years spent living there; many simply said that he was being too whiney. Another responded that “it’s Indonesia and that’s how we live”. This is what happens when you speak your mind to the “tough” Indonesians who think they thrive in this chaos. In a few words, you are guilty of being “un-Indonesian”. Their message: “Indonesia ain’t broken, so don’t you dare fix it”.
I firmly answer with one of my favorite quotations: Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. Right here right now, we are living in a serious state of denial. Despite all the problems, we always think that everything’s all right, that we can live like this forever and ever. It’s too much trouble to turn hell into heaven and, once again, it’s un-Indonesian. Like rebellious teenagers, we believe it’s supercool when we ignore the rules.
That is totally wrong and we have to set things straight immediately! If we do love this country so much, we have to admit that it has a lot of fields to improve. I’m not saying that currently I don’t have any sense of pride for my country, but I will be even more proud of it if Indonesia progresses to the right direction. This is meant not only for the government or our policy makers, but also for everyone else, including you and me. We are all Indonesians, right?
Let’s start with more of down-to-earth things. Try throwing away your thrash to the right place (which does not include roadside gutters, rivers, and open fields, among other things). Please drive in a way that does not endanger anyone’s life or unnecessarily lengthens travel time. If you have an appointment, be a hero by coming on time. Watch less E! Channel, and read more news and books. Less Luna Maya and more Pramudya (Ananta Toer). Did I sound cheesy? Most probably yes, but it shouldn’t stop us from doing good to ourselves, our community, and our nation.
Only after we succeed in getting our acts together, we actually get the right to demand more from the government. Human rights in all aspects must be upheld to its fullest extent. Our children need to be properly educated, not merely schooled. This country must stop being a mean traitor to its agricultural and maritime roots. We need a public transport system that doesn’t squeeze its passengers breathless. The government have to be more responsible, efficient, and organized.
Therefore, it is time for us to love our country so much that we cannot let it go down the pit by continuously denying its shortcomings. Everyone must realize that we can’t live like this for the next five or ten years, let alone a century. For those “tough” Indonesians, get real. Although we can live in this condition -and even I sometimes think that this makes us better in one way or another compared to those in “civilized” countries-, we should not be satisfied. Ready to do good?
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