Today I read this good quote above. For me, it’s very true. I have long dreamed about an advanced public transportation in my country, but it seems my country still has a long way to go. Jakarta is predicted to has its own monorail transportation (MRT) at 2016. Boy, it’s still 4 years again. And that’s Jakarta. How about me, who lived in the next-to-biggest city? When will that public transportation realized?
I feel, like many people feel, that the elites on Indonesia are trying to keep their people dumb, so that they can’t revolt or can’t push them with questions they can’t answer. If people understand about politics, the elites won’t be able to play politic games anymore. If people understand about money and monetary, the elites won’t be able to corrupt easily anymore. If they keep people in the dark, they won’t have problem to play dirty, even in the open field.
I can’t help but envy of Jakarta who has an ideal governor-vice governor (according to me). The governor plays as the kind and supportive leader who wins their people’s heart and gather their opinion and problems, where the vice governor plays as the “bad guy” for the bureaucrat, which vows to run for the vision and realising people’s need with iron hand and in the name of laws, even not hesitated to die for it. Under their leadership, slowly but sure Jakarta is tidying itself up. Problems are solved one by one. One of the problem is the MRT construction, which has been postponed for at least more than 10 years. It’s their biggest challenge yet, because to realize the MRT, many things also involved in it, like land acquisition from the people who don’t want to move from their home, construction and architectural problems, to how to manage the money and secure the budget so that no one can have backdoor access and take it illegally.
Along with that, they still have to convince people to switching from car to mass transportation. The problem is, it looks like their superior, Mr President and Mr Vice President, apparently doesn’t agree with them.
- TheJakartaPost.com: VP Budiono wants to push Low Cost Green Car (LCGC) production
- Yosefardi.biz: Jokowi-Ahok to Struggle over Gridlock with Low Cost Green Cars
- TheJakartaGlobe: Joko Airs Cheap Car Grievances in Letter to Indonesian Vice President
Watching those ordeal that Jokowi-Ahok has to face, I just can dream when will Surabaya has MRT of its own? The current mayor of Surabaya, Ms Risma, I think she’s a quite good and clean mayor. And today I’ve just read the newspaper that she’s already planning for the mass public transportation including MRT. But I still think to solve all the transportation problems in Surabaya, and ultimately, create a public transportation system convincing enough to make the riches willing to switch from their ultra-luxurious-car to use the public transportation, is a hard work. Because, if that’s starting to happen, then I can started to say, there’s enough hope for Indonesia as a country, and especially Surabaya, to rise up as a worthy nations. A developed country is not marked by how well its people can spend money on consumer goods, but how advanced their way of thinking to stand for their countries in any way possible, even though there maybe less advantage for each individual for some time. For example, people in developed country would prefer to buy goods from the local producer of their country, than to buy from foreign country, no matter how tempting it is from the price or quality, such as Japan. It’s that kind of unwavering nationalism that make Japan as great as it is now. It’s the sign of a developed country. It’s all just about mentality.
Life in a Nutshell 