Driving License – ESPRIT DE CORPS

This morning I went to the Police office in Denpasar to renew my driving licenses both for car & motorbike. I usually get a help from Pak Gede & his team– a police officer I knew back in 2001, just to speedy the process and you’ll give some extra money for this extra service, off course. Using a normal procedure will take a whole day and that means : longggg queuing.

I knew as a woman when you are at this kind of place where most people there are men, they will try to make nice conversation with you, ask personal questions typically Indonesians, ie. where you are from, what our parents do, whether if you’re married or not (this police officer was surprised-half shock- to hear that I’m single and asked me why, I said : why not!), bla bla …then they will ask for your mobile number as a closure! When this officer found out that my dad is a retired military doctor of Indonesian Air Force with one star on his shoulder (yes! I’m a general’s daughter), he suddenly ended this unnecessary and boring conversation and instructed right away his staff to bring my documents and help me to get my driving licenses renewed.

Not more than 30 minutes, everything was done, and left me amazed of how fast the process was, I noticed some people submitted their docs before me was still waiting for their name to be called to the photo booth. So my Bart assumed that this must be because the police officer was ‘horrified’ to know that the client belong to the big family of indo military a.k.a ‘general’s daughter, and that I should thank my father for this 🙂

The same thing happen to me back in Bandung where my car was stopped by the police as he noticed I did not switch on the lamp in the evening. After a long annoying bla bla with him where he gave me this lecture of traffic lights rules, etc, he said I could just ‘pay my fine on site’, and we all know what this means! I refused it – not because I did not have the money- but simply because I did not feel like being Santa Claus for him. When I told him that my father’s staffs will take care of my fine tickets, he carefully asked where my dad works, and I told him the same story – it’s just that at that moment my dad’s rank was not with one star yet! And there he returned my driving license he confiscated earlier and bended his back kind of saluting me! And said : “Why didn’t you tell us before your father is in military too, we have what we call here : ESPRIT DE CORPS, corps spirit among them !”

I guess next time I need something to get done at police office, I should wear “I’M A GENERAL’S DAUGHTER t-shirt, and give the police office an ESPRIT DE CORPS salutation! :p