Motocyborg, Are They Still Your Buddies?

One said that when your friend is putting his/her helmet on, have his/her ass ready on the saddle of the motorcycle then he/she is no longer your friend. He/she already become a different kind of heinous creature called 'motocyborg'.

If anyone live in any big cities in Indonesia, like myself, in Jakarta, I don't have to describe in detail what is motocyborg because they experienced it in their daily activities. Although, they could be the ones who ride or bump a ride with the motorcycle, they simply cannot be applied as one. Because motocyborg only applies to the third party's point of view. Anyone who sees someone else on the motorcycle is actually seeing a motocyborg.

There have never been a special lanes for motorcycle in Jakarta. Lately, as numerous cheap motorcycles coming from the mainland China and the easy credit given by the financial institution, the city has become the haven for the motocyborgs on every lines available on the main street. Once, a lane reserve for one car, several years back, was used up for two cars during the high traffic. But now, the lane was only able to hold for one car as several motocyborgs are there guarding each corner of every car, congesting the lanes even more. It's like watching the secret servicemen guarding the presidential car in every corner.

Now, hear this as a phenomenon. Sidewalks are worst in Jakarta. But, even worse are those motocyborgs who takes over the pedestrian as a sidewalk's occupier. It has become a common sight as well as a common sound or beep whenever those motocyborgs are honking their way for their right in the sidewalk against the pedestrians. In this case, the peds are fighting their losing side as those motocyborgs will not give in no matter what. Lastly, the sidewalk are not for it was meant to be despite the written law for it.

Coming to the written law, but when you are in Jakarta, there seem to be no rules guide the driver in Jakarta. With this flux of motocyborgs, they create, somehow, a new conventional rules. The rules that their rights must be respected. This is one instance of everyday driving experience. When you are about to make a left turn, turning you left sign on, and at the same time one motocyborg coming fast at the farther left lane, you will hear their klaxon reminding us that they want their right to go straight and you, as you are about to go your way, have to yield to their insistence. With this underlying statement in their unwritten conventional rules, day by day, the motocyborgs will rule the street of the big cities in Indonesia.

I have two infuriating real stories regarding motocyborg. First, when I was inside a car of friend of mine and saw how my friend almost killed a motocyborg and losing his friend altogether in the process. On the jammed high traffic in the middle of the day, as my friend, who was driving, about to move from its stillness, one motocyborg rammed his car. Then, in a beat, the motorcycle swerved itself to the ground. Berated, my friend stopped and got out from his car, readying himself to kick and beat the motorcyborg. As the motocyborg got up and opened his helmet, my friend ceased his temper. The motocyborg was none other than his own good friend.

The next one was the incident that took someone's occupation away from him. A chauffeur who was fired because of his employer's expensive car was scratched by motocyborg's extra helmet. I didn't witness this one, but I saw the same incidence from a different motocyborg. Still, with the jammed traffic, those motocyborgs are unstoppable, meaning if they can ride their way through the top of the stuck cars, they would have done it. This one motocyborg has an extra helmet protruding on the side. With the small slit of opening between cars, this motocyborg dared to pass in between at the cost of scratching the helmet on the surface of the black Toyota Alphard. The chauffeur reacted, getting out of the car to check the outcome. Separating the black beauty of the car's paint was the long thin scratched line of the helmet's own paint. And, what was left on the scene was the chauffeur's depressing look and the smog of the runaway motocyborg in the distance.

I remembered one time that I have to rush somewhere. No taxi could get me there quick, then the only choice was 'ojek', a motorcyclist as a means of transport. I put the helmet on and rode through the jammed street of Jakarta. On top of the motorcycle, I've had this gushed feeling to have this motorcycle fly fast to the destination. In every obstacle, there was an urging inside me to shout to the cyclist to pass them on. But, without saying it out loud, the cyclist passed the obstacles successfully as well as riskily. He knew the trick skillfully. Well, come to think of it, I had become one with the cyclist. Me, myself and the motorcycle. I had turned myself into one of the evil motocyborgs and yet, I am still your buddy.