Holy Cows in the Big Durian

Since March the fifth, 2003, I have been in Indonesia. That day I arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport around noon, greeted by a blazing sun - and a traffic jam of inhuman proportions. It took the taxi three hours at snail’s pace to arrive at my hotel. Halfway we got company of the rain; rain pouring down did certainly no good to our tempo.

Back in the Netherlands, I am sure drivers would have gone totally bananas, showing their middle fingers, yelling at one and another, banging their heads on steering wheels, and eventually abandoning their cars to ventilate their anger elsewhere. But then here, in this big stinky durian, one seems to be much obliged to accept fate.

I start to feel at home here though. Indonesia is nesting underneath my skin - the dust, the dirt, the heat, the jams, the noise - the thrills for me, the urban junkie. It has been and surely still is a valuable lesson in slow living. Now I am a denizen of this city too, a citizen with no right to vote.

Here in Jakarta, congestion can be treated as a virtue. When traffic comes to a halt, when the traffic lights turn red, then it is time. It is the time to sell tofu, slices of mango, nuts or krupuk, cold beverages, maps and dictionaries, a whole range of newspapers and magazines (including the latest edition of Playboy), nail clippers and razor blades. It is the time for the lame & blind to beg for some change. It is the time to sing a protest song in honor of Soekarno or to read some poetry in favor of a local pesantren.

Others gnash their teeth and give out some change or wave beggars off with a lofty hand. Others catch up with their reading. It is the time to clean one’s nose, to stare in oblivion or just to doze off for a second or more.

Currently the average speed of the 2.5 million private cars and 3.8 million motorcycles is 14.75 km/hour. Every single day 300 new cars and 1200 new motorcycles enter the 7500 kilometers of Jakarta’s roads. On average 50 percent of the travel time is wasted at intersections - there are many spots of such chronic congestion. The total amount of cars in the city of Jakarta increases per annum by 11 percent. Jakarta is close to a final gridlock.

Urban-based societies are generally considered civilizations. Perhaps Indonesia urbanized too quickly; concerning Jakarta it is Dante’s inferno that comes to mind. The streets of Jakarta are a paradise, though, around midnight. Then it is sheer pleasure to drive around this nocturnal city of concrete asphalt and multifarious lights. Take a joyride: roll the windows down, feel the wind and hear P.J.Harvey sing ‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea’

We wanted to find love
We wanted success
Until nothing was enough
Until my middle name was excess
And somehow I lost touch
When you went out of sight
When you got lost into the city
Got lost into the night.

Political philosophers tell us that every one’s freedom is limited by the freedom of others; freedom is a relational concept. These philosophers also claim that accumulated private vices can become public virtues. They speak then of asocial sociability. Here in Jakarta private vices do not add up to a virtuous situation, a civilized society. Nevertheless, no one wants to hear that a change in the way we live our lives is needed.

Recently I bought a map of Jakarta. To my surprise, the only green areas indicated are Monas, Senayan sports complex, a few cemeteries and some golf courses (quite a few actually). Nature has been colonized. So how many more toll roads and flyovers can this city absorb? With how much more asphalt can the city be flooded? The TransJakarta Busway and the three-in-one policy during peek hours meet mockery, and ust because it's felt by the well-to-do that it eats up ‘their’ space.

There can be no blueprint to solve all Jakarta’s problems at once. Piecemeal solutions, though, should come from a public - i.e. political - approach. How to use the space of our mega-metropolis is open to political debate for all its users - poor or rich, indigenous or foreigner (Indonesian poet and essayist Goenawan Mohamad writes that in Jakarta everyone is a foreigner, in Jakarta everyone’s place of origin is somewhere else). Every Jakartan needs to have a stake in a just space.

That solutions can only be implemented in a piecemeal manner does not mean however that we cannot open our minds to think outside the confines of the box. This is usually the territory of science fiction. Sci-fi speculates on future uses of science and technology. For example, Steven Spielberg’s 2002 Minority Report movie with Tom Cruise is a showcase of new transport modes we imagine to use in a not so distant future.

Henry Ford (1863-1947) was the founder of Ford Motor Company. The Model T was in 1908 the first mass produced car (sociologists call this mode of production Fordism). Ford wanted every one to buy a Ford, simply because he wanted to make as much money as possible. We have become habituated with the idea that if we can afford a car we will buy one. We should not forget, though, that Ford did not create the right to privately own an automobile.

Can we imagine our city devoid of combustion engines? (This is not a question from an environmentalist perspective; I’m discussing the city’s congested space, so trading in the petrol fueled automobiles and motorcycles for an environmental friendly variant will not help.) At today’s markets models for every aesthetical taste and use can be purchased. The choice for a type of transportation mode depends on its efficiency, flexibility, costs, cleanliness, and prestige.

Talk about the holy cow is a taboo. The car seems these days an expression of the self. Talking about banning the car from our streets rocks people’s identity and will get you branded as a communist. People want to distinguish themselves from others, even in a traffic jam. A few weeks ago I saw two teenagers driving very slowly a convertible Ferrari through the congested streets of the snobbish neighborhood Pondok Indah.

Can we phase out private ownership of automobiles and motorcycles in Jakarta while at the same time making public transportation efficient, flexible, cheap and clean? It would not help much if we individually decide not to purchase a motor or car. We together need to answer that question. And for this we need the esprit of a polity.

A certain degree of snobbery should be tolerated as a translation of the unequal distribution of prestige. In Jakarta’s polity this ought to have no extra political weight. If public transportation can be made efficient, flexible, cheap and clean, then prestige has to be channeled through other means then car ownership. All Jakartans have the right to take part in discussions on a fair use of space.

I love to hate Jakarta. I hate to love Jakarta. However, I am a Jakartan.
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Roy Voragen, from the Netherlands, lives in Jakarta and teaches at Parahyangan University, Bandung. His weblog can be accessed here.