You may have noticed that all the construction of public facilities like the MRT and flyovers have arguably made Jakarta’s traffic woes a whole lot worse than ever before.
But, as a certain two-faced villain in The Dark Knight once said, the night is darkest just before the dawn.
Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said he realized that all of the ongoing projects have temporarily made things more difficult for Jakartans, but he believes it’s a necessary evil and doesn’t mind being criticized if it means a brighter future for the city.
“Why wasn’t the MRT built after 28 years (when it was first planned)? Because the job of governor only lasts 5 years, and the construction [of the MRT] takes longer than 5 years [so previous governors can’t take credit for it],” Ahok said, as quoted by Merdeka at City Hall today.
“People will insult you, like people have often insulted me, by saying, ‘what has he done as governor, the macet’s gotten worse?’ But I built the MRT. I don’t care about the insults, because later you’ll say, ‘lucky Jakarta had a crazy governor who was brave [in taking risks].’”
Rock on, governor.
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