Dewi Kurniawati

Other road users have complained about some owners of large motorcycles, who often ride together in a convoy and can be a source of road-related problems. 

Do Jakarta's Big Bikes Cause Big Problems?

Sarie Febriane vividly recalls the day three years ago when the side-view mirror of her car was slapped from behind by a giant hand as she was stuck at the back of a bottlenecked road in Cinere, South Jakarta.

“I thought he was trying to hit my face, but it turned out he hit the mirror,” Sarie said.

She rolled down her window to see what was happening after being startled by the sounds of big-engine motorcycles, known as moge, or motor gede (big motorcycles) revving all around her.

“I was furious and was trying to get him, but he ran away fast,” Sarie said of the mirror swatter.

The next day, after calming down, she wrote an e-mail to her “Funky Moms” mailing list and a public note on her Friendster page regarding the incident. Little did she know that her e-mail would spread like wildfire through cyberspace, spurring supportive comments and prompting other people to share horrific experiences at the hands of biker clubs.

“When I wrote that e-mail, I wanted them to know what people think of them,” Sarie said firmly. “People should not be quiet about this.”

The first moge group to gain public notoriety was Harley Davidson Club Indonesia, but other biker groups have also emerged on Jakarta’s crowded streets. They are not usually a welcome sight, as some bikers have police escorts to open their way through traffic and use city toll roads, even though two-wheelers are forbidden.

The special treatment given to these clubs by the city police has prompted angry comments from motorists that the bikers are arrogant and intimidate cars at traffic areas by revving their engines and screaming at drivers to give way.

The road incidents sometimes turn violent. One Sunday last May, Jakartan Edwin Sudibyo was driving with his pregnant wife, their two children and his elderly father in the Puncak area of Bogor.

Stuck in heavy traffic, unidentified members of one of the numerous active Harley Davidson clubs began pounding his car with their fists and demanding he move out of the way.

Sudibyo rolled down his window to ask the bikers what was wrong and they replied by punching him in the face in front of his screaming family. He reported the incident to the nearest police station and said that his wife and children are still traumatized by the incident.

However, Eren Sukmahara, who owns several big-engine motorcycles and is a member of a biker club called “Hell Noise,” rejected the suggestion that all such groups are arrogant.

“I think that arrogant attitudes belong only to some people and we all have to bear the blame,” he said. “In my group, we ride for what we call brotherhood and togetherness and we are never arrogant to people.”

Adjutant Commissioner Kanton Pinem, an official with the Jakarta Traffic Police, confirmed that they do provide police escorts for biker clubs, but said this was for safety reasons.

“The purpose of the escort is to make sure they obey traffic regulations and to safeguard the convoy,” he said.

“There’s no discrimination on the street, but we do have to prioritize for things like ambulances and convoys, especially the presidential convoy.”

“There’s no regulation about paying for the escort, but if they want to show their appreciation with a gift, they can do that,” Pinem said. “But the police should not accept the gift.”

Sukmahara said that in recent years, moge groups were banned from the streets during weekdays and only ride on weekends. “The big engines are easily overheated so actually, it’s not suitable to ride in Jakarta’s traffic,” he said.

A surprising fact about these big-engine motorcycles is that many of them aren’t legally registered.

“It was like that before 1997, I don’t understand why it is still like that these days,” said Indro, a well-known comedian and co-founder of Harley Davidson Club Indonesia.

He said that as far back as the 1950s, local Harley fans found ways to import motorcycles without paying expensive import taxes.

Indro said that in 1996, the Directorate General of Taxation announced a tax reprieve for big-engine motorcycle owners if they registered their bikes and began paying taxes.

However, he said, many bikers didn’t take advantage of the offer.

“An annulment should be just once,” Indro said, adding that he’s saddened by the bad reputation that moge in Jakarta have acquired.

“I never break the law, or never enter the toll road, or get an escort. That’s not what being a Harley rider is all about.

“Riding a big motorcycle is all about brotherhood, but people don’t have that these days. They’re just a bunch of rich people who don’t understand the philosophy of being a Harley rider,” Indro said.

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