Immi-negotiation

Petrol prices have just gone up by 2000 rupiah a litre ( about 10p). This has happened after the election of the new Obama-esque president Jokowi. The petrol prices used to be subsidised by the government so they actually lost money from selling it. Petrol is still cheap at under 50p a litre even after the price increase.

A day before this I received a call at about 9 o'clock in the evening from my co-worker. She told me not to go outside because she was just arrested in a blaze of camera flashes. She sounded a bit shocked and was in a bus full of other foreign people being taken to a 'shelter.' She said she had no idea what it was about. After I hung up I called an Indonesian friend who was on their way to my apartment and told them if there were any police on the floor to not bother knocking and also to lie if anybody asked her any questions on the way in. Next I phoned up my manager to ask what was happening.

My manager told me there was an 'immigration check' going on and that it was nothing to worry about. I continued to check in on my co-worker by text to make sure she was OK. Turns out the 'immigration check' is just the police teaming up with immigration to round up as many foreign looking people as they can then scare the shit out of them. Once everybody is suitably terrified with whispers of 'detention' time because of the long process involved to check visas a 'deal' is offered. My co worker was eventually released at 3:30am after my manager arrived and chatted with the officers for hours before paying an undisclosed bribe.

For some reason I escaped the check. I took a taxi to the door that day as I was feeling lazy and that may be why escaped it. The officers did knock on people's doors but as I am high in the building I suppose they were feeling lazy too. I'm glad that in the UK people can't get rounded into buses for looking different to the ethnic norm because that 'immigration check' is about the most corrupt thing I have ever witnessed. Some of my Indonesian friends told me that those immigration officers may lose their jobs soon under the new government and that the money they make will work towards a retirement fund. It is also possible that they needed to reach an end of year target that they hadn't achieved. Either way if any of the new petrol money went towards reducing corruption like this I think everyone living in this 'developing' country would be happier. Well, the foreign people at least.