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The only way to answer the
question is to interview or ask them directly. But it is undoable for the people
like us. You can’t just go and toss random questions to them. Public forums and
discussions are the occasions where this kind of question should be raised. Media
journalists should expand their visions to that of stimulating the horizon of
those politicians sitting in the National Parliament, and government offices to
brain storm, to create regulations, and initiate policies and planning on Public Transport
development. The Public Transport sector is comparably almost neglected even
though it is the most utilized, the closest, and the most affordable mode of transport
to low income and poor people on grass root level both in rural and urban areas.
Public Transport in Timor-Leste develops
itself since the independence. Public transport vehicles are made available by individuals
for business purposes. A kind of conventional regional busses and microlets
(mini bus) were left by the Indonesian era; they now are
obsolete and inoperable through license screenings. Public transport operators
purchased individually new vehicles from abroad. This means that the fleet
conditions are getting upgrade due to the initiatives taken individually by
private operators. The recent introduction of Tum-Tum (an electric three
wheeled motorcycle) by individuals is another example of the Public Transport has
developed itself.
The government has many different
roles in the development of public transport. However, it so far exercises only
and limited to regulation and compliance of policy and regulatory framework. For
example, it performs vehicle registration, inspection, driving license issuance
according to the regulations currently in place; a lot of fines and catches are
made as a result of enforcement. However, the government ignores the roles it
should play to improve the individually-provided public transport services. For
example, the government is not present in performing public transport planning
and development, collaboration, leadership and innovation. As a result, the
status quo has not changed.
The status quo shows poor public
transport services. The population in Timor-Leste is expected to grow resulting
in higher trip demand, additional vehicles on the road and congestion, as well
as more congested public transport operations. However, there is no planning
for public transport service provision that can respond to the future demands. Poor public transport vehicles that can affect
safety of passengers, public transport services do not have adequate connectivity
to jobs and services, limited oversight on efficiency, safety, convenience and attractiveness.
This makes people do not feel attracted to use public transport. The most retarded
condition is that public transport facilities such as terminals, bus stops, bus
layovers have not even rehabilitated, not to mention, upgraded; and public transport service scheduling does not even exist.
Whereas there is a lot of
potentiality that public transport can contribute for a modern of Timor-Leste. There
is a huge percentage of low and even poor population. This group of population
can only afford to use public transport as a means to access health, education,
and market. If there is no connectivity, inadequate, unsafe public transport, it
makes life even harder for them. More, public transport as a basic need for
transportation, it can also help the economy as well making efficient movement
in cities, Dili city in particular; public transport facilitates tourism. A unique benefit applies
for Dili city; public transport will help reduce the pollution due to its mass capacity, then eventually improve the air quality.
It is proven that the politicians from era to era have not thought about developing public transport in this country. Therefore, there has no change since independence. There is no point to pay attention to it because politicians don’t use public transport anymore; What they think about instead is use the public resources to maintain powers, enjoy privileges given by the state, and pay attention to joining WHO and ASEAN that can promote their popularity in the global arena.
*I hope this gives you an inspiration
