Anker Twitter, From Kopdar To KRL User Complaints Facility

Fikri Muhammad Ghazi, founder of the @AnkerTwiter community. (Diah Ayu Wardani / VOI)

JAKARTA - Commuter trains are the main mode of transportation for people who travel long distances every day, both to schools and workplaces. The struggle to jostle to get inside the carriage, or all the travel disturbances of the Commuterline Electric Train (KRL) experienced by many users. That experience underlies Fikri Muhammad Ghazi in forming the Anker Twitter community.

Ghazi initially created the community account with the username @AnkerTwiter. The @AnkerTwiter account was initially promoted through Ghazi's personal account to reach out to other train users and share stories with fellow users of the rail transportation mode.

Time has passed, the increasing number of followers on @AnkerTwiter has made information from users more diverse. As of today, there are 28 thousand followers of the Twitter account created since July 2018.

Dozens of tweets per day are milling about on this account profile. Starting from information about lost goods on the train, information on train disruptions from passengers, station congestion, complaints about KRL facilities, to information on the spread of cats at stations.

To strengthen relationships among community members, Ghazi created a telegram group which currently has around 1,400 members. Routinely once a month, they hold ground coffee (Kopdar) or gather together.

The gathering point when Kopdar is at Manggarai Station. This station was chosen because it is a large station and a transit point for various train routes. Kopdar activities begin by sitting on the floor on the platform area, forming a circle formation, then starting to share stories, or simply "haha-hihi" together.

"We are cooperating to strengthen bonds among passengers. Even though our train destinations are on different routes, we feel the same fate as being on the train. We gather to share stories," Ghazi said while talking with VOI some time ago.

This private worker who rides the Bekasi-Serpong train every day realizes that more and more members of Anker Twitter have the capability to develop the community into a forum for positive activities.

Therefore, currently the Anker Twitter community is maximizing the capabilities of its members to serve complaints of verbal and physical harassment on the train. They are working with PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI).

"So, from the beginning we started out as a gathering, after a while we took the initiative to open a complaint channel for complaints about KRL trips. We are now pioneering a channel for complaints of harassment and we will follow up to KCI," said Ghazi.

This is because, based on a survey by the AMAN Public Space Coalition (KRPA), as many as 46.8 percent of survey respondents throughout Indonesia admitted to having experienced sexual harassment on public transportation.

Harassment that often occurs on public transportation comes in the form of verbal, physical and non-physical. Harassment can take the form of verbal forms such as whistling, voice kisses, body comments, explicit sexual comments, sexist comments, and racist comments.

Then, harassment in physical form is flirting, being secretly photographed, honking, vulgar gestures, showing public masturbation, being blocked, being sexually exposed, being approached aggressively continuously, being stalked, touched, touched, and rubbed with the genitals.

STOP CATCALLING! Because catcalling is a form of verbal harassment. Come with us, #BeraniMelawan and #StopPelecealSexual! Because #CommuterPintarPeduliSekitar! If we don't take care of each other, who will? @ AnkerTwiter @ _perEMPUan_ @ CommuterLine pic.twitter.com/vm15WFVK0t

- Anak Kereta (@AnkerTwiter) December 29, 2019

Therefore, through the @AnkerTwiter community, Ghazi and his friends invite fellow KRL users to care more about this phenomenon.

"We invite users to pay more attention to the surrounding environment, especially to fellow KRL users. By increasing awareness and awareness, we can help users who may be experiencing sexual harassment but are powerless to get out of the situation," he explained.