The ways of Indonesia's transport industry are indeed mysterious.
Following the recent crashes and disappearances of aircraft, Indcoup has already highlighted one of the latest developments in the air transportation sector. That the powers-that-be have 'traditionally' been Javanese is well known. What is encouraging is that the headhunting for the new head - what else? - of the Directorate-General for Indonesian Air Transportation should have been conducted on an island, Papua, which depends on air transport more than the nouveau riche of Java who have had the 'benefit' of budget airlines for a few years.
Of course, public relations are at an all time low, in spite of so-called audits of the airlines. It's little wonder that Indonesia's bookshops report a resurgence in the sales of Erika Jong's masterpiece, Fear of Flying, originally published in 1973.
A team set up by the government to evaluate transport safety following the disappearance of an Adam Air jet carrying 102 people in January has recommended that airlines found to have violated safety standards be shut down. Budhi Muliawan Suyitno, the director general of civil aviation at the transport ministry, said 20 aviation companies had been put into three rating classes with the lowest batch for airlines that only meet minimal standards of safety.
Actually, as reported in the Jakarta Post, none were in the top class and the seven in the bottom class, including Adam Air, have been given three months to get their act together.
Getting our heads out of the clouds and coming down to earth, it's good to read a scathing editorial in the Post.
Jakarta's ... administration must be realistic and acknowledge that the core problems haunting this city's traffic situation have yet to be properly addressed.
News has now reached Jakartass of further innovations in the transport industry. Rather than shouting about monorails, subways, more Busway routes and electronic road pricing, as is the usual custom of the City Government, a feasibility study into a new form of environmentally-friendly road transport is being conducted on the outer island of Sumba where this photograph was taken.
Given Indonesia's rapidly depleting oil reserves and the high unemployment rates here, Jakartass is pleased to note that workers at Pertamina petrol stations will be offered alternative work.
