GO-JEK: The Alternative Transportation for Jakarta's Traffic

Everyone in Indonesia, even maybe foreigners, know about GO-JEK. An application for transportation that just established for 5 years. And the coolest thing is, this innovation came from an Indonesian’s youth in our generation! It’s cool, isn’t it?

As of right now, who doesn’t know about GO-JEK? Despite all the controversy with conventional ojek driver, GO-JEK is still an alternative transportation, that I think, fit for traffic in Jakarta; hectic, jammed and exhausting. Very solutive, GO-JEK became an answer for the people who wants to reach their destination faster and it could go through the traffic jam.

I am a GO-JEK user myself. Not for a long time already, but I guess long enough to feel that GO-JEK is one of the best transportation in Jakarta. I’ve been using GO-JEK frequently for at least a year, to commute from home to work. So far, GO-JEK has been helping me to go to my destination quickly. In Jakarta, traffic jam is unavoidable, but GO-JEK can go through in between of other vehicles, so we are not stuck in one place for a long time. The price is also lower than the conventional ojek price. And then, the comfort I get is priceless. They provide us with a mask and hairmask (eventhough I never use it) and also a raincoat when it’s rain. Even some drivers provide powerbank or even candies. Their services were excellent.

Besides that, one of GO-JEK selling points is technology. They use technology to upgrade the conventional services. GO-JEK is an application based on transportation so we need to be aware with the latest technology. As a result, the drivers also need to learn about how to use a smartphone. They also need to open their mind, to embrace every changes. Several times, I got GO-JEK driver who had already aged. But they were still able to find passengers and this means they also learned and able to use smartphone to run the GO-JEK application. I’m proud and often sad. Proud because at their age,whichwere no longer young, they still want to learn and embrace the change called technology. Sad because they should have retired now and maybe enjoy their life with their grand kids. And somehow I was reminded of my late grandfather.

GO-JEK also gave a feeling of safety for its users. I never hesitate to use GO-JEK late at night because I know that this app is being observed. With the GPS system, we would know the driver’s name and phone number, and it become some sort of security guarantee. And then, I felt that the GO-JEK drivers also obey the rules. It didn’t make they drive slowly like sloth or something like that, but somehow they were more careful when they driving their bike, not reckless or even speeding.

But all the goodness didn’t make everything went smoothly. There were few “negative” cases that related to the existance of GO-JEK in the middle of society. From a social jealousy between conventional ojek drivers and GO-JEK drivers to the issues of bad GO-JEK drivers. I might not have experienced the first issue, but I have experienced the later.

I have talked with my GO-JEK driver who afraid to pass through certain locations because it was a violent-prone area. There was also driver who talked about his concern about this issue. It’s not surprising that conventional ojek drivers were angry or frustrated with the existance of GO-JEK. They must felt threatened by GO-JEK whose service was better, cheaper and safer.

The main issue of this matter was the reluctance of conventional ojek drivers to changed for the better. They were lazy to learn to use the technology that they find inconvenient. They also didn’t like to be regulated by all the rules binding between GO-JEK as a company and driver as a partner. Bottom line, they want to have as much money with their own way and do not want to have competitors, which is impossible to happen. Because in this era, where everything happened in a blink of an eye, for people who are not willing to change, they will stuck and couldn’t go anywhere. Period.

For the bad GO-JEK driver, I have experienced it some times. They took my order but then they clicked complete  without even picked me up. I was angry and upset, but I couldn’t contact the driver. Nor texted him. It also cut my GO-PAY credit. The first time it happened, I let it go. But when it happened for the second time, I gave him 1 star for rating and wrote about my complaint toward this driver in the comment column. But the resentment was a little relieved by the fast response from the GO-JEK customer service.

Indeed, ordering something with application, where the visibility of service or the object is not apparent in the beginning, is a bit risky. But, at the end of the day, the people still choose to use it afterall. Maybe all of the good things, the benefit that GO-JEK provides to society covered up all the bad things that happened. Without people knowing, GO-JEK become a necessity in their lives, in my lives. And now GO-JEK expands their service and area. GO-JEK is now available in 10 cities in Indonesia. The service they offer is not only just GO-RIDE, they now have GO-SEND, GO-FOOD, GO-MART, GO-GLAM, GO-MASSAGE, GO-TIX, GO-BOX, GO-BUSWAY, GO-CAR, and they gave the credit deposit system a name just recently, which is GO-PAY. All of this services are really making our live easier. If you hungry but you’re too lazy to go out, just order via GO-FOOD. You urgently want to send things faster, you can use GO-SEND. Wants to shop but have no time, you can use GO-MART. Feel tired and want to relax, call GO-MASSAGE to your place. GO-JEK provides them all now. My friend once said, “So, it’s either we are lazy and too dependent or we are using the technology very well.” I laughed then, but now, I thought it’s true.

So, GO-JEK for me is an innovation tha t help me to make my life easier. It provides almost everything. An alternative transportation that could go through Jakarta’s traffic faster and easily, but also gave you comfort and safety. And most importantly, this is the work of Indonesian’s youth. And I’m proud with it. Do you?

Review: Merry Riana, Mimpi Sejuta Dollar

Haaaai....

Sebenarnya tulisan ini sudah dibuat dari tanggal 9 Januari 2015 lalu. Tapi, karena saat itu belum ada tempat untuk posting tulisan ini secara proper, jadilah baru dipost sekarang. Inilah review apa adanya dari gue yang juga penonton apa adanya.

Judul Film: Merry Riana, Mimpi Sejuta Dollar

Nilai: 7/10

Pemain: Chelsea Islan, Dion Wiyoko, Kimberly Ryder, Ferry Salim, Cynthia Lamusu

So, kira-kira tanggal 8 Januari kemarin, gue nonton Merry Riana sendirian. Out of curiousity dan nggak ada temen makanya akhirnya jalan sendiri deh ke bioskop (iya iya menyedihkan). Sebenarnya yang menggerakkan gue buat nonton ini bukan Chelsea Islan tapi Dion Wiyoko (hey, I’m normal so yeah). He looks so fine in trailer. Hahaha.. Okay, stop with basa-basinya.

Pertama-tama, gue blank banget ya sama ceritanya ini. Karena gue nggak baca bukunya juga dan beneran nggak tau siapa si Merry Riana ini (sebut aja gue katro). Di awal, pas adegan kerusuhan Mei 98, sih oke. Tapi trus mengganggu karena channel tv nya. Okelah karena kalo pake stasiun tv yang pas tahun itu, ntar disangka iklan. Oke, no probs. Tapi kemudian, ada gar*ier. I know, itu sponsor. Tapi, ini ganggu banget karena kita taulah jaman taun 98, merk itu belum ada (nggak tau ya di negara lain sudah atau belum tapi seinget gue, belum ada di sini).

Lanjut ke adegan selanjutnya. Setelah mereka sekeluarga akhirnya berhasil kabur setelah dirampok dulu, mereka segera ke Soetta. Ceritanya kan mereka mau ke Singapura ya. Trus, ehem, entah karena ini film dengan dana sederhana atau memang gimana gue nggak tau, nggak ada sama sekali penyesuaian timing dengan mobil yang harusnya ada saat itu. Masa tahun 98 sudah ada APV, Avanza? Hello… logika gue mempertanyakan itu.(karena yang gue tau paling nggak APV tuh baru ada tahun 2000-an)

Lanjut ketika Merry sampai di Singapura. Gue, berhubung gatau di SG harusnya ada apa saat tahun itu, nggak banyak protes. Sampaaaaai….. gue melihat poster iklan hape. Tebak apa. Hape merek S itu. Yang layar sentuh itu. Jaman dulu, jangan layar sentuh, orang punya hape aja kayaknya sulit ya. Masih terus di SG, pas Merry kirim email ke ayahnya, yahoomail-nya tampilan baru, trus temennya udah ada facebook. How come. Seinget gue, facebook itu baru ada tahun 2003-an. Come on lah…. Di sini, gue udah mulai mencari kekurangan terus. Sayang padahal masih di awal pula.

Pada akhirnya, Merry ketemu temennya kan si Irene. Anak Nanyang. Gue nggak mempertanyakan dormnya ya. Karena gue nggak tau. Tapi, kejanggalan berikutnya, hapenya si Irene. Ada yang bisa tebak? Yap. iPhone. How come lagi nih. Dan kalo gue nggak salah mengenali, itu iPhone 5. Sementara yang gw tau, iPhone 5 itu ada tahun 2012-an lah ya kayaknya. Aneh kan.. pada saat ini, gw sebenernya udah mulai males mencari kesalahan karena akan semakin banyak. Jadi gue mencoba untuk mengabaikan detil film dan mulai nikmatin filmnya.

Ceritanya bagus sih sebenernya. Tapi, lagi-lagi, saat gue lagi menikmati (akhirnya memutuskan untuk menikmati ajalah), kejanggalan berikutnya muncul. Hard drive. Gw nggak tau sih bentuk hard drive jaman dulu. Mungkin memang ada, jadi gue kayak yang ya udah mungkin memang ada, stop critisizing. Sampai akhirnya muncul kejanggalan baru. Hapenya Alva. Hahahaha, android. Seketika itu juga gw nyerahlah sama time logic film ini. Mau nggak peduli, terganggu. Mau terus terganggu, gue nggak nikmatin film. Belum lagi bentuk macbook nya Irene itu, yang macbook jaman-jaman sekarang kayaknya. Bukan macbook air, macbook yang biasa kayaknya.

Dan…. Kejanggalan tentang hard drive tadi itu. Di akhir-akhir, si Irene balikin hard drive yang isinya foto-foto keluarga si Merry. Itu bentuk keluaran baru deh. Maksud gue tahun-tahun 2010-ish. Yah, gue nyerah deh….

Seperti yang gue jelasin tadi, overall, kalo mau melupakan detil-detil yang nggak logis tadi, ceritanya bagus (di luar akting Chelsea yang buat gue masih kaku di beberapa bagian, kayak pas nangis dan ketawa, maksa buat gue). Dion Wiyoko, bagus banget sih aktingnya (I'm not bias, he was really good). Maksud gue, gue udah tahu dia nih dari masih jadi presenter berita olahraga. Kimberly juga bagus mainnya. Dan ceritanya, bagus banget sebenernya. Memotivasi sekali. Dan gue sedikit nangis juga pas adegan mamanya Merry nyamper ke Singapura (gue lemah kalo udah ada adegan bawa-bawa orangtua apalagi mama).

So, I gave this movie 7 out of 10. Mau kasih lebih gede gue males karena detilnya, mau kasih lebih kecil, gue suka sama ceritanya. Karena gue bener-bener terganggu sama detil itu semua lho. Kalo soal cerita, gw acung jempol, nice. Bagus. Dan nilai ceritanya pun ada. Worth to watch. Asal jangan terlalu kritis aja, pasti nikmatin banget filmnya sih. 

 Salam sotoy dari si penggila film,

-Nifa

Pesta Demokrasi Indonesia. Benarkah?

Sehari yang lalu, 8 Juli 2009, Bangsa Indonesia mengadakan Pesta Demokrasi ke-2 yaitu Pemilu Presiden. Setelah sebelumnya tanggal 9 April 2009 diadain Pemilu Legislatif.

Sebenernya, gue mengharapkan pemilu kali ini berjalan damai-damai aja. Nggak ada protes-protes curang atau apalah. Tapi, ternyata emang nggak bisa lepas dari itu semua juga.

Sportif ga sportif, cuma masing-masing individu yang tau. Gue sih masih berharap siapapun pemenangnya semua calon bisa legowo menerima hasil dan keputusan itu. Jangan lagi-lagi saling nyalahin trus tuding-tudingan siapa yang mencurangi siapa.

Tapi emang bener kata berita, Pilpres ini bener-bener penuh drama. Bahkan melebihi drama-drama di reality show. Dari yang nyontreng dua kali, ada yang meninggal, ada juga yang ngerobek-robek kertas suara. Untuk apa? Toh dengan merobek kertas suara hasilnya ga akan berubah. Dan yang bikin geli, alasan dia ngerobek tu kertas suara cuma gara-gara panitia KPPS (iya bukan itu namanya?) nyamperin ayahnya yang lagi sakit di rumah untuk ikut nyontreng. Dan dia curiga ayahnya disuruh menyontreng salah satu calon yang disuruh panitia itu. It's silly. Trus, emang kalo kertas suaranya dirobek, bakalan beda?

Yah, itulah. Pesta Demokrasi Indonesia. Kalo kata berita lagi, Indonesia memang lagi berkembang dewasa untuk berdemokrasi. Tapi, ini bukan dewasa namanya. Semoga apapun hasilnya, siapapun pemenangnya, memang bisa membuat Indonesia menjadi lebih baik dari sekarang untuk 5 tahun ke depan.

By the way, gue juga nyontreng kemaren. Alhamdulillah, gue udah menggunakan hak gue untuk memilih. Semoga lo semua juga gitu. Sekarang yang gue pikirin adalah jari kelingking kiri gue yang biru dan menghitam gara-gara tinta. Anjir. Kuku gue jadi item nih. Kalo kuteks item sih gapapa deh.

rgds,

-nph