HAPPY LONG HOLIDAY !!!

No matter where we live: whether we are in Indonesia or in Australia, we enjoy a long weekend holiday. In Indonesia, we have the long public holiday due to the celebration of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (the thing that he (peace be upon him) has never asked his followers to do) and Easter. Of course, in Australia, the long public holiday has nothing to do with the celebration of Prophet’s birthday, but is related to what a so called Good Friday. If you happen to be in Australia today, the mood of the long weekend holiday is widely felt. Today, a lot of shopping malls, banks, and private/government offices all over the country are closed. Instead, a lot of people go out for sightseeing and dining or just simply go to city parks for barbecue. For those working in public services, such as nurses, doctors, policemen, pilots, and taxi and bus drivers, some are not off. The Australians call today -- March 21, 2008 -- Good Friday. What I simply understand is that the Good Friday is related to the coming of Easter, the time when the Easter Bunny and Easter Egg-chocolates are easily found in the racks of shopping centers around Australia, such as Coles, Woolworths, and K-Mart.

For holiday makers in Indonesia and Australia, this long weekend is a great chance. However, the sky-rocketing prices of fuels have made uneasy. At least, they should spend much more money for filling their cars or motor-bikes’ fuel tanks. In Brisbane and other big cities in Australia, the unleaded patrol price has reached about $1,30 a liter (about Rp11,000) The patrol prices can likely be much higher in the coming days if the world market’s oil prices remain at $110 per barrel. For Indonesians, the oil price burden is not the only problem that they undergo. The bad road condition and traffic blocks in Jakarta and many other cities in the country, including the roads to tourist destination sites, have put them into a more difficult and costly situation. In this case, the Australians are much luckier because their road condition is far better than ours. Although they also have traffic jams in the week days in their big cities, like Sydney and Brisbane, the situation has nothing compared to that of Jakarta, Bandung, and Bogor. In Australia, it is easy for us to enjoy the blue sky and parks. If you happen to live in a suburb, which is located in the outskirt of city center, you can easily find parks equipped with children’s play ground and barbeque facilities. All are free of charge!!!

In contrast to Australia, in Indonesia all these things are usually not free of charge because they are not built with the tax payers’ money but with investors’. Our local and central governments still like ignoring the importance of public access to good public facilities, such as parks and city libraries, in their development plans. The ignorant governments will not be long in power in Australia because the people will severely punish them in general elections. Failing to serve the public is a disaster for Australian politicians. Therefore, the heads of city, state, and federal governments are serious in meeting any promise they have made during the election campaigns.

Natural disasters, such as prolonged drought, flash flooding and cyclones, also occur in Australia. But the governments successfully show their accountability to their natural disaster-hit people by providing them with the basic goods and immediate rescue they need. What about Indonesia? To our best knowledge, our people should take care of themselves at anytime the natural and man-made disasters come to them. Even for Jakartans, they should also improve the bad road condition by themselves if they want to remain secure and safe because if they keep waiting for the Jakarta government’s initiatives, it is similar to waiting for Godot. Actually, the people that we have chosen in local and national general elections are not stupid; they are just careless to the mandate that their people have given. Believe it or not, the poor road condition and traffic blocks in Jakarta during weekdays have indeed made millions of Indonesians become easy to lose their life orientation. The coming of long holiday has helped them escape the daily madness in Jakarta but they then move it to other cities. We do pollute our cities and our villages. But any way, I wanna say happy holiday to you all!!!