A taxi driver has reportedly been apprehended for his involvement in what people are saying was an utterly embarrassing incident for those in his profession.
As shared by many in Bali, including social media activist Ni Luh Djelantik, a video has gone viral depicting a driver for a conventional taxi company trying to extort tourists who had booked a ride using a rideshare app.
In the video, which was taken by one of the passengers, the taxi driver can be seen unashamedly demanding IDR150K (US$10) from the passengers on the grounds that they allegedly violated the no-rideshare rule in the unidentified neighborhood.
One of the passengers, who speaks fluent Indonesian, refused to cower to the taxi driver’s demands. The taxi driver then ordered the passengers out of the car and to follow him to a village office, and still the passengers refused.
In her post, which was uploaded yesterday, Ni Luh defended the passengers as they had the right to choose their mode of transport in Bali.
“We should all learn from our struggles during the pandemic,” Ni Luh wrote in the caption, reminding her followers that domestic tourists played a significant role propping up Bali’s ailing tourism industry.
“There should be no more complaints from domestic tourists who feel that they are being mistreated.
“Remember, during the pandemic, it was the domestic tourists who saved us.”
Amid public outrage towards the taxi driver, footage emerged this morning showing that he has been apprehended by authorities. However, local police have not yet released a statement on the capture as of this article’s publication.
Hostility towards ridesharing is nothing new in Bali. Conventional taxi and motorcycle taxi drivers have established pockets of rideshare-free zones throughout the island, where app-based drivers are prohibited from picking up passengers.
In Indonesia, the emergence of ride-hailing services was met with resistance from traditional taxi drivers, who felt that the newcomers were impinging on their territory and stealing their customers. The rivalry has more or less disappeared over the years in major cities like Jakarta, but in Bali app-based drivers still actively steer away from certain territories to avoid repercussions.
