Following my last post about how to retrieve your Indonesian driver's license the right way, I am now going to share how to get your bike paper (STNK) back. Again, the right way.

If it ever amazes you how quick and police services in reobtaining your driver's license (approx. 30 minutes), it should awe you more with getting your STNK back. Of course, the only way to do it is when you get the right information and you have all the right papers to bring. Here it takes only 15 minutes.

Remember though, the very first thing you have to do when your wallet/purse is stolen is to report it to the Police. Right away. They will issue a statement that you lost your important papers that can be useful to apply for new ATM cards, credit cards, national ID card, driver's license, motorcycle paper, ANYTHING you have lost in the mishap. It is like a magical piece of paper. Also ask a few copies instead of one. They normally give you only one. As you read in my previous post, it was used to get my SIM back. Now it is also used to get my STNK back.

The steps:

1. Go to the SAMSAT (one roof system) in your city. In my case, I went to the SAMSAT in Renon, Denpasar.
2. Always put your documents in a paper folder. The documents here are: the statement letter from the Police that you lost your STNK and your real motorbike blue book paper (BPKB) and the recommendation letter from the POLTABES, which I obtained after I got my SIM. That is why you have to do your driver's license first, then STNK.
3. Go to the Leges department. Here they will crosscheck your data in their system, making sure that you already paid your bike tax, then they will issue a letter stating that it is true that you have no problem with your motorcycle taxation. You will need to pay Rp 10,000 here.
4. Put the letter together with the other documents in the folder and go to the STNK Duplikat department. You will be given a form which you have to fill in, return the form with the rest of the documents to this department, pay Rp 60,000 and you will be given a receipt to take your STNK duplicate in 3 days working time.

All that takes 15 minutes.

I actually thought with the former bureaucracy that I would be totally bored waiting for my papers to be processed. And therefore, I had John Grisham's novel The Appeal with me. But again, no bullshit at the Police department. They were quick and effective and I must say I am very proud of them.

Now I have to go somewhere to read my novel. Reading it at home will only make me fall asleep. :p

Bali bureaucracy

9:00 am

How many of you makes your SIM legally? Until this moment, approaching 31 years of living in Indonesia, I have NEVER known anyone - including myself - who gets their Indonesian driver's license legally. The calo (illegal agents) practice is so much widespread and though they charge 2 to 3 times more expensive than the legal price, they do help save a lot of time of the applicants by tipping one police officer to the others to get things done in a wink.

It has been over three months since my purse got stolen, and I only equipped myself with the letter from the police that my papers were stolen. But I knew that it could not stay that way forever. So after I got some fee of a photography project I did recently, I went to the police office on Jalan Sangyang Kerobokan yesterday to retrieve my SIM. This time, legally.

I suppose it is an easier procedure to prolong your SIM's term or retrieve it when lost than to apply a new one. If you have to do it in Denpasar, Bali, this is the list of things that you need to do:

1. Go to the same police station that issued your last SIM and ask for the printout of your old driver's license at the PRODUKSI SIM department. On a piece of paper you have to write your full name, the address stated in your old SIM and your birth of date.
2. Get a doctor check up on you and make him make a good health statement of you. Next to the POLTABES - 1 minute walking from the SIM office - there is a small clinic that is probably good only to give the health statement. I giggled when I went there, but hey, it was easy and fast. It costs you Rp 25,000.
3. Go to the Bank inside the SIM office and pay Rp 60,000 (for retrieving lost SIM or prolonging your SIM). Rp 75,000 if you make a new one.
4. Submit the letter from the police that you lost your papers + the SIM printout + the proof of payment to LOKET 1.
5. Wait until you are called. It took me less than 10 minutes.
6. They will give you a registration form that you need to fill in then submit it in the LOKET KOREKSI SIM, next to Loket 1.
7. Wait until you are called. Took me 2 minutes.
8. Take the documents they gave you back to LOKET 4 - SIM production and photo booth. Here they will crosscheck your data. Takes less than 5 minutes.

9. Get your photo and thumbs finger prints taken. Takes less than 5 minutes.
10. Submit the documents to LOKET PRODUKSI SIM 8 CETAK SIM
11. Wait until you are called. Took me less than 5 minutes.
12. You get your new SIM.

Total time: 30 - 45 minutes.

The moral of the story: If it takes only 30 minutes of your time to get your driver's license rightfully, why would we need to hire a calo? Although not perfect yet, but I have noticed that the government institutions are getting better and more efficient with their services since Yudhoyono became a President. Most have no more bullshit with delaying the process as it was in the former days, and that prevents bribery. I am not denying that it still happens (corruption). Even when I got my printout, one of the officers was offering me his "magic help". But you know, it just takes a polite no to take things right. And the money will go to the right departments. And hopefully after some time, it can be used for the better sake of that department. And hopefully it will give advantage to us when they are better taken care of.

It takes a while to educate people, but it does not mean it is impossible. I'd rather be on the positive side that things can change, and it has changed, and it will always change.

Bali bureaucracy

11:43 am