One of the biggest stories in Jakarta this week involves a motorcycle taxi driver assaulting a pedestrian who told her to get her vehicle off the sidewalk, an incident that was filmed and went viral online. The incident may have thrust the issue of vehicles illegally driving on sidewalks back into the spotlight, but it might also serve as a reminder to netizens that there is rarely only one side to any story.
After her partnership contract with Grab was terminated due to her actions in the video, the driver, who was identified by her initials GS, posted on Facebook her version of events that led to her assaulting the pedestrian. In the post, GS alleges that she was outraged at the pedestrian because he hit her motorcycle as he was reprimanding her about driving on the sidewalk.
“The person in the viral video is me. But don’t blame people before you have any proof,” she wrote, as picked up by GridOto.
“The pedestrian suddenly stood in front of me and he hit the front of my motorcycle. It’s normal then that I asked him who he was, and then he yelled at me. As far as I know, if you want to warn somebody, you do it politely.”
Even though in the video it appeared that GS approached the pedestrian before she assaulted him, she claims that she was just defending herself because he was going to hit her in the head.
“I don’t need people to defend me, but I have the right to defend myself. Thank you,” she wrote concluding the post.
GS did not acknowledge that she was wrong for driving her vehicle on the sidewalk to begin with.
The pedestrian, who is a member of Koalisi Pejalan Kaki, a group who have long campaigned for pedestrians’ rights in Indonesia, has spoken of potentially taking legal action against GS but there has not been any news about them filing a formal report thus far.
The Jakarta provincial government and police have also announced that they are going to clamp down on vehicles illegally driving on sidewalks, but, just like the last time this issue became viral (so don’t expect this renewed enforcement to last long).
Last year, Koalisi Pejalan Kaki received similarly hostile treatment from motorcyclists when they set up human barricades on sidewalks to prevent motorcycles from driving on them. A video of motorcyclists trying to physically attack the group’s members became viral and prompted a month-long “operation” by traffic police to clamp down on the violation. But, as we’ve seen and experienced in Jakarta since then, a lack of enforcement and an unwillingness for motorcyclists to change their attitudes means motorcycles on sidewalks remain a problem to this day.
Under Jakarta’s regional laws, motorcyclists driving on sidewalks may be punished with one-month imprisonment or a IDR250,000 fine (US$17.32).
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