An awareness of far-off resentments

Democratic outage: A tweet from Riau mocked Jakarta’s power cut, saying, ‘We get that daily, you know. If development cannot be disbursed equally, well at least the blackouts can.’ – Reuters

THE SUNDAY blackout on Aug 4 in Greater Jakarta and parts of West Java was said to be the worst in many years.

Family and friends’ gatherings were still cheerful but hot as houses lost their air-cons; the new pride of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and that of Jakartans, the MRT, seemed to blush in shame as the power back up, it turned out, was for the stations and not ready yet for the MRT itself – from which passengers had to be evacuated.