Prodita Sabarini, Jakarta – The fast-deteriorating Transjakarta busway system has forced Jakarta resident Ratih Puspitasari back to using taxis to commute.
The long wait and queues, the jam-packed buses and the gaping holes in pedestrian ramps were enough for her to call it quits.
"It's most inconvenient at the Harmoni shelter," she says. "It's hot; lines are disorderly; buses take so long to come, and it's not as comfortable as it used to be."
The Transjakarta, touted by the Jakarta administration as one of its greatest accomplishments, can serve as a benchmark for other city public services.
Jakarta resident Meiranie Nurtaeni agrees with Ratih on the city's public transportation. She adds rules can often be bent for a fee.
Poor public services occur in administrative processes as well, such as in the issuing of ID cards and passports.
"I had to go three times to the immigration office and queue for hours to get a passport," Meiranie says. "Meanwhile, next to me, I see middlemen applying for other people's passports and paying bribes, and they get the job done faster than the normal procedure."
Both are skeptical the newly passed public service law will bring any change to services in the city. "It's just like the bylaw banning smoking – that didn't bring any significant change, and I don't think this law will bring much change either," Ratih says.
The law allows the public to sue the government and private institutions if the latter fail to provide adequate public services. It also makes public service providers liable to criminal punishment if through their negligence, members of the public are injured or die.
The city's sidewalks are peppered with holes and uneven paving, while busway bridges boast honking big gaping holes that have seen many a pedestrian get hurt. American national Roy Ventura was one of the victims; he dislocated his shoulder and toe when he fell into a massive hole on Jl. Sudirman.
He has demanded the Jakarta Public Works Agency reimburse him for his medical bills, to which the agency responded they would mull it over. He says he contacted the agency because sidewalk maintenance was their responsibility, but did not sue them.
Ratih says she came close to falling off a pedestrian bridge near the Jakarta Police headquarters a few months ago. "If I didn't snap to it, I might have fallen," she says.
But she adds she would be reluctant to sue the city, should she have an accident because of the poor conditions of the street. "It seems like such a hassle, and I'm not sure whether the public can actually win," Ratih says.
City spokesman Nurrachman said he had yet to receive the copy of the law, but promised to abide by it. "The city will obey the law," he said with a straight face.