Whenever I am somewhere outside Jakarta, I feel a deep jealousy coming up for those people who live in houses that I can see from the streets. For the people of Jakarta the days that they could talk over the fence with their neighbors, while working in the garden are gone. This privilege is only available for people outside Jakarta or, well, may be in some of the suburbs.

In the beginning, people started to build walls in front of their houses, so people could not snoop in. But every one had their own idea of a wall and some of the walls reached unproportional measurements. That was soon banned because authorities too wanted to know what was going on behind those walls. A regulation came about the maximum height and the front of the houses to make them more "transparent". The forbidding looking walls were creatively modeled into artistic looking structures or were replaced by iron fences, nicely painted in attractive colors or hedges of plants that has nettles to keep of people trying to get in with bad intentions. But there were no regulations about the walls at the back and the sides. And that was the reason, why these walls kept on "growing" until they almost reached the sky.

Don't we trust our neighbors anymore? 'It is not that,' was the answer, 'but the house may not be occupied for some time, thus allowing criminals to pass through'. We have to think of all the possibilities and meanwhile our neighbors have to put up with those high walls. (sometimes topped off with barbed wire or potsherds). Plants will brighten them up and will make them more friendly looking.

However, although fences may be more transparent, they can be very unfriendly too. Usually they are shaped like spears ready to impale the person trying to climb over. Sometimes they are cut in such a way that they may hurt the intruder. I once went to an embassy, where I had a meeting. Usually the guard doesn't allow the cars to go in, but because of the meeting, an exception was made. So the car went through the main gate, but was stopped by another gate. Only after the main gate was securely closed, did the second gate open to let me in. I couldn't help remembering the day that I went to the Safari park and the same thing happened in front of the tiger and lion cages! Of course I couldn't help asking myself: 'Are these gates for the people inside or those outside the gates?' Forgive this nasty thought, but sometimes gates may have this double function isn't it?

Nowadays fences are seemingly not enough to keep away people with bad intentions. We see whole housing developments and shopping malls trying to defend themselves with barbed wire entanglements.

'Are they effective?' I asked my cousin who lives in one such compound.

'As they are now, they only function to make criminals think twice before they come. But when there are riots, we electrify them,' he answered with a sadistic tone in his voice.

'But you'll kill them', I exclaimed terrified.

'Serves them right', he said, 'we'll kill them before they kill us!'

Is this the fate of Jakarta, which got the nickname "Queen of the East" in the 18th century? And will this be the fate of all of Indonesia, termed the "Belt of Emeralds" or as Mochtar Lubis said "Country under the rainbow?" What will we call Jakarta in the 20th century? The "burnt out city" or the "King of the barbed wire cities"? It is time now to save Jakarta and Indonesia from more killings and barbarian acts, which made it necessary to set up these ghastly entanglements.