`Becak' drivers pedal through life's hardships<\/p>\n
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Life for Salmun, 43, is more often than not quite difficult.<\/p>\n
The father of three has been pedaling a becak (three-wheeled
\npedicab) since 1982 and has no legitimate chance to change his
\nprofession, even after he moved from the city in 1990, one year
\nafter the administration imposed, for the first time, a ban
\nagainst the pedicabs.<\/p>\n
"I have no other skills. It's much better to be a tukang becak
\n(pedicab driver) rather than be unemployed and turn into a
\ncriminal," he told The Jakarta Post recently at Molek housing
\ncomplex on Jl. Raya Pondok Gede, Bekasi, West Java, technically
\noutside the city limits.<\/p>\n
The housing complex is situated right on the border with East
\nJakarta municipality. A signpost across the road forbids all
\nbecak operation in the capital.<\/p>\n
Bylaw No. 11\/1988 on public order in Jakarta specifically bans
\nthe becak. Following its implementation the following year, the
\ncity's public order officers rounded up all the pedicabs, seized
\nthem and dumped them into the sea.<\/p>\n
The becak raids still occur occasionally against the tiny
\nnumber of pedicabs defiantly operating in the city. Many have
\ntransformed their pedicabs into pedi-carts (becak gerobak known
\nby the acronym bego) which can be found at traditional markets
\ncarrying goods, usually vegetables, unloaded from trucks to the
\nvendors.<\/p>\n
But the administration has also started to evict the bego from
\nthe city despite protests by some activists.<\/p>\n
Salmun still remembers how he lost his own pedicab during an
\noperation in the city more than 10 years ago. He bought the
\npedicab for Rp 125,000 (at the time around US$60) -- one fifth of
\nthe current price. Months later, public order officers seized his
\nrented pedicab. He then rented another becak but again, it was
\nconfiscated. This time, he gave up, and moved outside the city
\nlimits to do the same job.<\/p>\n
Salmun, who dropped out of school after elementary, said he
\nnever got compensation or any alternative to earn a living.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta administration had actually offered new jobs for
\npedicab drivers, for example, to be factory workers, street
\nvendors or tailors as well as joining the transmigration programs
\nto live as farmers outside Java island.<\/p>\n
But the offer is only valid for legal Jakarta residents, and
\nSalmun and most others were not born here and have no legal right
\nto live or work within the city.<\/p>\n
In the Jakarta Social Institute (ISJ)'s latest 2002 annual
\nreport, made public earlier this month, revealed that the change
\nof profession did not improve the former pedicab drivers' lives.
\nFor the majority of them, it had reduced their financial
\nstability by between 5 percent and 95 percent.<\/p>\n
Activist Wardah Hafidz from the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC)
\nadded that the administration's program was not working because
\nit has failed to upgrade the pedicab drivers' skills in order
\nthat they may pursue other job opportunities.<\/p>\n
Salmun's current pedicab belongs to a "boss", to whom he has
\nto pay Rp 30,000 in monthly rent. His daily earnings average
\nabout Rp 15,000 due to the tight competition with some two dozen
\nother pedicab drivers in the area.<\/p>\n
"Back in the 1980s, with Rp 15,000 per day I could save enough
\nto build a house in my home village in Karawang, West Java. But
\nthe same amount now is barely enough to feed my family," Salmun
\nadded.<\/p>\n
Most of the pedicab drivers operating in Bekasi are those who
\nwere evicted from Jakarta.<\/p>\n
But Salmun and other drivers rarely blame the Jakarta
\nadministration for the hardships. They even said they are ready
\nto move to another place if the Bekasi administration emulated
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
"The administration is not wrong. The pedicabs are the least
\nuseful transportation in big cities. We would only cause traffic
\nproblems," said Aca, who started his "career" as a becak driver
\nin 1988 in the Jembatan Baru area of Cengkareng in West Jakarta.<\/p>\n
But that's not what Ima, a resident of Molek housing complex,
\nthought about Jakarta's becak-free policy.<\/p>\n
"What's wrong with the becak? We still need it, particularly
\ninside the housing complexes where no other public transportation
\ncan take us," she told the Post.<\/p>",
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