Small vendors want a place inside market building<\/p>\n
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
\"I have sold fruit here for almost 15 years already. We are
\nallowed to do business here because we pay the officials,\" said
\nDudung, 51, who opened his small stand on the sidewalk of Jl.
\nPalmerah Utara, while pointing at the city-run Palmerah market
\nbuilding behind him.<\/p>\n
Dudung is among the dozens of small scale vendors who sell
\ntheir merchandises on the street, taking up a great portion of
\nthe road and causing traffic congestion in the area not only
\nduring peak hours.<\/p>\n
\"I cannot afford to rent a place inside the building because
\nit would cost me billions of rupiah,\" Dudung said.<\/p>\n
\"Here I'm only required to pay Rp 1,000 (11 US cents) in the
\nmorning, another Rp 2,000 in the afternoon and Rp 1,000 in the
\nevening to the public order officers and sanitation agency
\nofficers,\" he added.<\/p>\n
A similar situation can be seen at Pasar Minggu market in
\nSouth Jakarta where small vendors, mostly selling fruit and
\nvegetables, take up a portion of the left side of Jl. Ragunan
\nwhich connects Depok and Pancoran areas.<\/p>\n
\"We play cat and mouse games with public order officers all
\nthe time. We have an agreement with the officers that if their
\nboss shows up to supervise an eviction, we will disappear for
\nthree or four days. After that, we come back, pay the officers,
\nand its business as usual,\" said Budi, 35, who sells fruit on the
\nsidewalk, adding he paid a total of Rp 7,000 each day.<\/p>\n
\"But it is better than being told to sell in the place
\nprovided by the market management at the back of the market
\nbuilding as nobody even bothers to go there,\" he added.<\/p>\n
The head of city market operator PD Pasar Jaya, Prabowo,
\nadmitted that his office imposed fees ranging between Rp 5,000
\nand Rp 7,000 on small scale vendors who do business inside the
\nmarket compound but not in the building.<\/p>\n
\"We set high fees because we want those vendors who don't want
\nto rent space inside the market building to move. As a result,
\nsome of them have begun to look for other places,\" Prabowo told
\nThe Jakarta Post through phone on Monday.<\/p>\n
But the vendors apparently have not moved far away from the
\nmarket, as more and more vendors are seen around the traditional
\nmarkets managed by PD Pasar Jaya.<\/p>\n
Activist Wardah Hafidz of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC)
\ndeplored the city market operator's policy which she said did not
\nside with the small scale vendors and would only worsen traffic
\nand security problems.<\/p>\n
\"The city administration should give the vendors strategic
\nspaces which can easily be reached by buyers inside the market
\nbuilding, and not give them kiosks on the upper stories of the
\nbuilding just because the strategic sites had all been taken by
\nbig capital traders who are willing to pay more,\" she told the
\nPost.<\/p>\n
She said that most of these small scale vendors were the
\noriginal inhabitants of the traditional markets.<\/p>\n
\"These vendors were displaced by the big traders after the
\ncity administration built modern market buildings there.
\nTherefore, their interests should be prioritized,\" she said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/small-vendors-want-a-place-inside-market-building-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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