Indonesian Transportation Accidents

An air crash happened again on Wednesday morning in Yogyakarta,Indonesia. It was a Boeing airplane belongs to Garuda Indonesia en route from Jakarta-Yogyakarta. Most of the passengers could get out and survived but scores of passengers were trapped and died.
I had good memories with Yogya and Adi Sucipto airport as I myself studied for 4 years in Gadjah Mada University,Yogyakarta. I would not discuss more on the casualty but emphasize more on the analytical part of it.
This year only Indonesia already had 2 fatal air accidents ( another one was Adam air’s accident in Makassar straits ) and several other sea and train accidents ( Levina ship,train and etc. ).As an Indonesian myself I used to travel a lot in Indonesia using most all transportations means ( becak,ojek,bus,travel car,train,ship and airplane ) and I surely then can say that my analysis is somewhat greatly affected by my own experience and from other supplementary sources ( media,expert analysis and etc. )
So I will tell it in several bullet points as follow :

1. Whenever a major accident happened then many version of news surfaced and many persons speak their own opinions. If you read Indonesian newspapers and Indonesian televisions then you can hear so many versions of an accident.

What are the the different types of version ?

a. Number of casualty

This one quite acceptable as it need sometimes to get an accurate figure of how many people died,injured,trapped and etc.

b. The cause of accident

Many persons ( experts or non experts ) just spoke out and told their own analysis in the TV and newspaper which then caused more confusion and rumour.These initial assumptions then spread out very fast which then soon more people believe on this and started a whole new debate / polemic everywhere ( coffeeshop,Parliament house and etc. ). We can see this type of cycle in almost every fatal accident in Indonesia throughout this year.

c. Blaming nature

Blaming usually went to Transport minister first and then directed to Indonesian President.

Well in case of major accident we should be more mature to let the evacuation happen first,the case well investigated before then we can take the blaming and action to somebody. Then it is a fair and professional game.

Surely if the Transport minister has a bad performance then the President has the utmost authority to change him straight away and replace him with another more capable person. And President can change the rest officers in transport minister if changing Transport minister is not enough to make Indonesian transportation safer.

2. There is an opinion widely believed in Indonesia that recent major accidents happened because of the low cost nature

Adam air itself is a new low cost carrier and Levina itself is somewhat public oriented transport ship ( surely not a tourist cruise ).

So somewhat this opinion can not be opposed until today Garuda which is not a low cost carrier also has major accident.

The opinion in Indonesia not a full wrong one as :

a. In Indonesia low cost always close to the meaning of low maintenance in order to get some profit from the business.

Soaring fuel cost,personnel salary,red tape and etc partly to be blamed for this.

b. The lack of attention and supervision from Indonesian authority for this type of transportation until recently.

But then it can be cracked down and not valid today as :

a. Garuda plane also crashed

b. Air Asia,Tiger Airways and etc which are prominent low cost carriers from outside Indonesia do not have record of major accidents so far

3. Many of my friends believe that nothing much can be done for the transportation system in Indonesia as our fate is not under our hands but all belongs to God

Well I myself believe on God and this principle thing but then it is not an excuse for us not to demand a safer transportation. A safer transportation is a right for every people in Indonesia and together with government it can be easily reached again.

So moral lessons is do not be so hopeless if something bad happen. Always be positive in thinking and then problem can be solved wisely.

So the above 3 points are the points which I want to highlight and share. Hopefully Indonesian transportation can get better as soon as possible after this. That is a hope from everybody and not only government.

Cheers,

Herman