Stories about a helpful security guard on a KRL Commuter Line train have recently gone viral, and even been picked up by the national media. Apriatna, the 25-year-old security guard in question, did not expect to get his 15 minutes of fame just for helping out a passenger, which is what he is paid to do.
A KRL Commuter Line passenger, Priska Devina Handoko, took a photo of Apriatna tending to a woman’s bleeding wound on the Tanah Abang – Serpong train last week. Priska then uploaded the photo on her Facebook page, where it has been shared over 6,000 times.
On the photo page, Priska described how Apriatna offered his assistance to a woman who fell in the train earlier. Apriatna then took out an antiseptic liquid from his pocket to treat the woman’s wound on her knee.
For Priska, this was such a rare occurrence that she took photos of the good deed and shared them on Facebook.
But Apriatna said it was just part of his daily routine.
“I was a bit shocked that I was being talked about, I didn’t expect it, because that’s our job,” Apriatna told Kompas.com on Saturday.
Apriatna said security guards are always equipped with a first aid kit for emergency situations. He said that in his two years as a security guard on the KRL Commuter Line, this was hardly the first time he hd tended to a passenger’s wounds.
“Maybe not every day, but it happens. After all, it’s the KRL Commuter Line and it gets really crowded,” he said.
What Apriatna did was truly commendable, as a security guard and as a human being. But is chivalry really so dead and buried in Jakarta that this “rare” occurrence should have made the news? Or can we say our social and traditional media went a bit “lebay” on this one?
