Friday, October 5, 2007

Here we go again.. [2]

Continued from Part 1

SERVICE CHARGE?
B: Here, your documents are ready. You just have to pay now, IDR 500,000 for each child, at the cashier over there (pointing at a table at the far end of the room)
I knew that’s the official price, so I nodded.
B: Then please come here with the receipt and I’ll give you another receipt as a proof of payment when you picked up your children’s nationality letters.
This was expected, too, of course. I had no objection.
B: Oh, one more thing..
Here we go, I thought.
B: There’s also a charge for legalization process.
T (Oh right, those copied documents): How much for the legalization?
B: That’s up to you, how much you want to give us.
T (acting naïve): Oh, I thought it’s according to the amount of documents I legalize.
This, I remember, is how legalization is done in The Netherlands. No haggling, nothing – just plain, clear tariff per document.
B (happy to get an excuse for stating a price): That’s possible, too. How many do you have?
T (I’ve counted before): About 24 documents for two children. How much is it per document? In the Foreign Affair Ministry office of The Netherlands, it used to cost EUR 20 per piece(!)
B: Say, I’ll give you IDR 200,000 for all those documents.
T (comparing to the Netherlands' price): Fine, just make me a receipt.
B (lowering voice, acting restless): We don’t have such thing, here.
T (I thought so!): Can’t you make a kind of statement like your colleague here?
I pointed at a small piece of paper with his colleague’s handwriting and signature, stating the amount of money he received for the application folders that I purchased.

B (lazily searching his desk and shirt): Paper, I need paper. I don’t have paper. Do you?
T (producing my sketchbook-diary, the only thing I had at that moment): I can take a piece from here.
I folded the last page of my book, ran a knife along the rim, and produced a small piece of thick, creamy-white paper.
B (holding my precious torn page): Mmm.. (thinking for another minute) ..Right, I’ll just type you the receipt.
He got up his seat, walked to a computer at the nearby corner of the room and started typing. He came back to his desk with a typed receipt. Meanwhile the cashier woman has prepared my proof of payment and we dealt with all the necessities. My business is done here. Proceed to the ‘extra’ matters..

B (signing his self-typed receipt): What do you need this for, actually? For your office or something?
T: Well, it’s exceeding a hundred thousand, so I’d better have a report for my own responsibility.
B (while handing the receipt to me): There another thing..
What now?!
B: So you've paid the application, IDR 500,000 for each child, then another hundreds for this legalization. The last one is for a ‘service charge’ when you pick up your documents. The amount is up to you.
I sort of ‘know’ what this ‘service charge’ is about and tend to ignore it. So I just nodded, threw a crooked smile, and left. Now all we have to do is wait until these letters are ready. I was told it takes about 3 months, and B himself said that the letters might already be issued in December 2007.


WISHES
1 I wish people could access complete and detailed information on requirements – on the Internet or otherwise - including the direction to not cut documents that are smaller than A4 (i.e. ID card, passport) according to their sizes, and the amount of copies they need.
2 I wish procedures and fee for each step are stated clearly, as well. All about what to do next, where, what to submit, how much and when we can receive the results. Is this too challenging for the government institutions?
3 I wish all government offices possess copying services. I am lucky to be fairly young and fit that I had no trouble walking out a bit and back repeatedly. But I’ve seen less fortunate people forced to do the same thing but could not quite cope with this simple task. If it’s so hard to maintain and operate your own machine, at least allow small copy shops to conduct their business ‘in-house’. 
4 I wish we are not so corrupt and greedy.

24 comments:

  1. 5 - I wish all your wishes will come true....

    Courage Tita!

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  2. eugh... duit wee...
    serba salah yah... pengen meluruskan, bisa nggak kelar-kelar..
    kalau kita memberi (mengikuti) kemauan mereka, berarti kita ikut memupuk..
    heuuuh

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  3. this reminds me of akhil gupta's ethnography of corruption practice in india. interesting....(and of course totally upsetting)

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  4. you do great documentation for the whole process! that's a good start

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  5. pet: merci!

    dezig: iya, mau jadi idealis kadang2 jadi konyol :P biar lah, kekeuh2an..

    so: weh, blom baca.. tp intinya, pasti sudah mendarah-daging ya, mirip di sini *keluh*

    chaerani: thank you :) i'm sort of an inventory freak :P

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  6. esduren: by the end of all of these... you have done a self-ethnography of the immigration office bureaucracy and corruption.

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  7. I wish: The tittle "DEPARTEMEN HUKUM DAN HAK AZASI MANUSIA REPUBLIK INDONESIA" is not written there. What a shame.

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  8. Good luck Tita, cheer up, at the end your Children would live in peace...

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  9. same thing here in Venezuela
    huh! bikin BT dweh..

    Ta, me salute you, asli! smoga urusan cepet beres yaaa


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  10. Selamat berjuang Tita. Emang mengesalkan, capek hati capek tenaga, capek pikiran. Tetapi kalau nggak dimulai dari sekarang, kapan lagi?
    Stock sabarmu bergunung gunung.

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  11. Rapi yah elo... :D. Gue kebayang si bapak yg bengong (dan mungkin takut?) pas elo keluarin silet . Huahahhahahaha!

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  12. Gue doain orang-orang yang menzalimi elo seperti ini mendapat balasan yang setimpal dari yang maha kuasa!

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  13. mer: right, something I can show to my children, about their indigenous nation..

    teij: thank you :) yeah, that's also my wish when reading a big placard at the Court House of Bandung, which states their trueness and all.. *gag*

    mindy: venezuela juga? pasti ada kemiripan kondisi dengan sini :P trims yaa

    enkoos: iya setidaknya hasilnya emang ada, meskipun pake ndableg2 dikit :D terima kasih

    hasan: ha rus pi san!

    ven: hahaha cutter standar itu emang bawaan gue sejak jaman SMA! kepake banget, apalagi jaman kuliah. dan sekarang, jaman ngurus2 beginian ;))

    kk: iyah, bagian gue nyebar2 cerita dan data mereka aja :)

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  14. Mb Tita, I wish: those people you dealt with read your blog... then changed their ways. :) Stay strong ya!

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  15. kayaknya motto mereka : kalo bisa dipersulit, ngapain dipermudah?
    tanya kenapa.....?

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  16. Parah bener...ujung2nya duit...
    Salut buat Ibu.....Mudah2xan orang2x pada ngeh dengan kebobrokan yang ada d Indo...

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  17. yikk: ha, I wish that too. let's hope that what happens is not the opposite: they read this blog.. then make my unfinished process even more difficult out of spite! thanks :)

    indra: dan tanya kenapa juga sampe skg aku belom pernah liat iklan yg tagline-nya "tanya ken.. apa?" itu :)) btw, met ultah yee :)

    vhe: nggak peduli bulan Ramadhan atau lagi puasa, tetep aja pada usaha minta yg bukan haknya :( nuhun a'! :D

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  18. Tah eta mba kalakuan nu goreng teh.....
    Ongkoh d bulan ramadhan tapi kalakuan "jurig".......

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  19. BLEAACCHHHHH... :D kalo aku nggak tabah... :D

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  20. Good job, Ta! Kadang kalau sudah ketemu kasus-kasus begini, enaknya memang dipublish ke blog. Itung-itung apes tapi sekaligus menjalankan fungsi sebagai blog journalism :) Kalau sudah gitu, jadi ngga kesel lagi, tapi excited dan cenderung membuat jebakan-jebakan.
    Nanti mesti jajal sneaky-sneaky foto muka orangnya pakai phonecam. Atau usahakan ada rekaman audio - kan gampang tuh sekarang voice recording pakai handphone. Supaya ujung-ujungnya nanti kita tidak dituntut balik dengan berbagai dalih pencemaran nama (merasa paling) baik.
    Biar mereka malu. Biar mereka aware, perilaku busuk seperti itu sekarang sudah makin terpampang di etalase dunia lewat blog. Because everyone now is a journalist.

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  21. Typical birokrasi kita ya.. kalau lancar semua sesuai yang tertulis, kita nya malah shock, he..he.. Mudah-mudahan selanjutnya lancar ya.. Kita di Swedia, malah belum jalan sama sekali..

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  22. vhe: enya' tah.. malu2in korps aja :P

    tas: kowe piye? langsung ngeplak yo? :))

    pinot: heuheu thanks, jadi semangat! :D *niat curi2 foto lain kali*

    linnandari: terima kasih. wah, kbri di swedia belom terima aplikasi dwi-wn? kok 'kemajuan' kbri - meskipun di wilayah eropa - juga nggak merata ya, kayak di indonesia aja..

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  23. bm.... kalo aku, tak tinggal semuanya, terus pindah ke belanda lagi... hihihihi, terus pindah warga negara belanda sisan... hihihi... nggak ding... paling tak tinggal mulih... hihihi tapi jadi nggak beres kan, hehe

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