3rd FOCUS | August 2007

In 2001 Andry Mochamad, an artist from Bandung, produced stickers dedicated to the good drivers of public vehicles. If you see one of his stickers on your chosen public vehicle, then you can feel safe, because the stickers would be put only on public vehicles whose drivers are friendly and act in safe manners. It is a sign that they will take you safely to your destination.

No matter how bad we suffer in the traffic jams of Jakarta, it is certainly worse for the taxi drivers as they live precisely within the logjam. The taxi drivers are eventually forced to do their job with a distinct art. Seno Gumira Ajidarma writes his sharp, ironical observation about the lives of the taxi drivers, whom we often see but rarely think about.

Have you ever noticed how bus users in Jakarta are more conscientious on the air-conditioned Patas buses when it comes to their seating attitude? They will, of course, pick with whom they are going to sit. Ardi Yunanto writes about his year-long observation of the collective attitude of the air-conditioned Patas bus users when they choose their seats. It is about them, or you, who probably feel awkward to sit down with others.

While the becaks in Jakarta were once hunted down and destroyed for the sake of touristic good looks of the country, the becaks in Yogyakarta have been precisely maintained and used as a strong tourists’ attraction. Yoshi Fajar Kresno Murti delineates the problems of the becaks in Yogyakarta, which serve as a means of the identity politics of the Javanese culture but have also been naturally marginalized due to its failure to catch up with the development of the town itself.