My Ojek

“Dude, you’re getting mad with the way you drive this bike!” I heard myself yelled in fear. “Oh you think so? First, the idiosyncrasy of those city planning gentlemen who forced us to turn-on the head-lights at all hours, then came the extreme left-lane only drive-zone, then they are planning to eliminate us altogether, the motor-bikers, from the entire important boulevards! How do you think we are supposed to feel? Driving madly is the least thing I may just do to ventilate this rage!”

Well, there he verbally imposed it perfectly. Rizky, my regular tukang ojek (motor-cab driver) hottie, does have a lot of reasons to be perfectly angry lately. If the city planners have their way, very soon, Rizky will have to bid adieu to his three-year-long reign, err, livelihood around the Avenue Thamrin-Sudirman.

A couple of weeks back, when the first new motor-law was enforced, I was having a bit of an argument with a friend of mine who actually rode on his ultra-cool Tiger bike everyday from home to work and anywhere in between. I took a stand on agreeing with the city planners about the “lights-on” all day long. Because I sincerely felt that any trace of light bouncing on cars’ and buses’ side view mirrors will alert the drivers to enhance, if not greater ensure the safety of the bikers themselves. He was skeptical on this part. He asked for any research done on decreasing road accidents due to lights-on in any part of the universe, in which of course I couldn’t produce. He was even madder to know that this single act would accelerate the life, or shall I say the death, of the little bulb inside the lampshell casing. “And NO, it’s not cheap buddy!” he persisted. “But your life isn’t either darling…” I retorted.

Then of course I did rejoice the decision on the second new motor-law of having the bikers stay on the very left of the lanes in specific crowded passages. The effect was immediate. I saw orderly conducts and lessen traffic congestions and fewer accidents in the streets (at least in front of me). I was like, yay! Finally Jakarta was able to manage its street-izens. But of course getting their ways around would take longer time and patience had to be well under control on the side of the bikers themselves.

For all I was concerned about, I thought these new laws were made to help lift the 3-in-1 bans at certain times during the day. Geez, they even made more lanes for cars (though insufficient for speeding due to the narrowness of the new lanes). This psyched me up for I was so ready to embark on the new ERP (or ERM, or whateva) system: A way that the Singapore government use as an auto-debit toll road method to decrease usage of the main thoroughfares. How far are we into this new system? Only God knows.

Finally when we heard rumors that important avenues will no longer support bikers, they just flipped. I didn’t agree on the 3-in-1 systems, and this new future law doesn’t seem to be well thought of either. What will happen to our friendly ojek hotties? What will happen to our reliable couriers? What about fast-food deliveries at times that we’d really really need them? Trust me, Jakarta is not ready for those insanely outrageous bike messengers that you see flying across Manhattan. How many more lives (e.g. bike messengers’) will be mourned getting hit by motorists, crazy bus drivers, metro-minis, and even seemingly possessed bajaj drivers?

If you happened to be on a Jakarta street lately, it seemed that bikers had no longer obey the lights-on rule nor the left-lane only zone for all they’d care. Bikers got even more obnoxious by sticking to their ways, commanding buses and cars to move away from their paths. They felt empowered by the frustrations. It almost felt like another vox-populi had resurged and could be lethal if we just sit still without trying to find a way for a win-win situation. Road rages are frequent again after only less than a month of considerable peace in the streets.

“And you know what hurts us the most?” my cute ojek driver continued. “It’s the feeling that you are treated as a second class citizen. Just because we cannot afford to own cars, that doesn’t mean that we have lesser standings than any other people who are able to enjoy the city’s public streets!” he then lowered his speed and stopped in front of my office building.

Well said Rizky.

“That will be seven and a half thousand Sir…”

For that lingering smile and the thumbs-up pose he gave me, I should give him ten.
But then again I am cheap.