Seattle vs. Jakarta: The Monorail Challenge

I had a brief run-in with a signature collector outside a KMart in North Seattle over the weekend.  He was collecting signatures to force a recall of the vote that allowed for the monorail to be built from North Seattle to South Seattle.  I refused to sign, he got uppity, I yelled back, trip to KMart ruined.  His main point though, I gathered from the few sentences he was able to get out as I walked past him, was that the monorail proponents lied during the election campaign, so we had to recall the vote.  Now usually, Washingtonians try their damnedest not to act like those obnoxious crazy Californians, but now that their governor can deem us girlie-men if we don't, we evidently have no choice. 
 
Now, if I wasn't with theher (what, you think I was going to KMart by myself?) and had some time to rap with the fellow (who looked like your average friendly Seattle Kerry voter), I might have posed the following question:
 
If you had to choose between Kerry telling a lie and winning the election and Kerry telling the truth and losing it, which would you pick? 
 
On a related note, the city of Jakarta, the capital and largest city in Indonesia, is also building a monorail these days.  Jakarta is an emerging but still third world city with over 10 million people (Seattle: 3 mil) and an average per capita income of $5,018 (Seattle: $41,000).   Let's see the tale of the tape:
 
Monorail Length:
Jakarta: 16 miles (two lines)
Seattle: 14 miles (one line)
 
Work began:
Jakarta: June
Seattle: The signature collector mumbled something about digging, but I don't see anything on the web
 
Estimated Completion Date:
Jakarta: Early 2007
Seattle: Late 2007
 
Cost:
Jakarta: $540 million
Seattle: $1.739 billion
 
Now, can someone please explain to me why the city of Jakarta can build a longer monorail system for a third of the cost, and about a year faster than the city where much of the world's  software and commerical jets are made?  Am I missing something?  I understand things like labor will cost less over there, but over a billion dollars less?  And they'll work faster too?  Is it geography, the value of the land that needs to be repossessed?  Or is just whiny bitches with clipboards that can't handle the fact that politicians lie and therefore hold up the process just to make a point about honesty?  Didn't we already go through this nonsense with Clinton?  If you don't want politicians to lie, pay attention the first time! 
 
To be continued...