Just Give Em Tickets

The tickets I mean are neither movie tickets, concert tickets, tickets to attend performances, theatre, play nor show. It’s traffic ticket, fine ticket or penalty ticket, given to motorists or road users who caught in the act bending the traffic laws.

I wonder this system can be implemented in Indonesia, where people do not need to go to the court and pay the fine. If somebody for example, crosses a traffic light or drives exceeding speed limits, and the police caught him, the police just simply give him a traffic ticket. By the end of the year, or when he renew or registers his car, he will pay all accumulated tickets he has been receiving for the whole year along with paying the annual tax. Without paying the fine, he will not be able to get approval on the car renewal. This mean, his car will become illegal to drive. The police will trolley your car if you insist driving it.

The advantage of this system is mainly to prevent people from bribing cops, hence to avoid corruption in various departments, such as police department, court and tax office. The other impact is that government will earn more income from this post. No more leakage here and there. All funds will go to the right post and will be allocated for developing public infrastructure or improving public services.

This system is also very efficient in term of technical application. You do not need to go to the traffic court and spending time in a super dense crowd just to pay the fine and get back the license.

Based on my experience, the old way is totally terrible. I happened to attend a traffic court held at the North Jakarta Supreme Court, and I spent the whole day to queue with thousands of people, just to pay Rp.80.000,- in order to get my license back.

With this new system, you will even be able to pay by mobile banking, sms banking, Internet banking or simply going to your bank to remit the payment. Upon annual car renewal, you will not be surprised for the huge amount of your outstanding, because you already paid the tickets in advance.

If you don’t have time to make the payment in advance, you can settle the penalty later upon the car renewal. But, it might be hard for you since you will be forced to pay all tickets together in one time. I personally do not prefer this way.

The other advantage of this system is to force people to follow and obey the rule strictly. People will positively think, “If I keep bending the traffic rules, by the end of the year, when I renew my car, I will get the real trouble,”

But of course, there are some mistakes that tickets are not enough. This could be driving under alcoholic influences. Or, you are involved in a road accident. If these cases happen, the police surely will give you a ticket. But that's another type of ticket. It's ticket to the JAIL.