Street vendors allowed to operate during Ramadhan<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Street vendors can breath a sigh of relief this Ramadhan as the
\ncity administration finally bowed to public pressure to
\ntemporarily stop the crack down against traders during the
\nfasting month.<\/p>\n
Head of the Jakarta Public Order Office Firman Hutajulu said
\non Monday that he would not conduct raids on the vendors even
\nthough they conducted their business on the streets and disturbed
\ntraffic flow.<\/p>\n
\"They are illegal, but we will not conduct raids against them
\nbecause it's Ramadhan,\" Hutajulu told reporters at City Hall.<\/p>\n
Last weekend, Governor Sutiyoso vowed to continue the crack
\ndown on the street vendors in spite of the statement of Minister
\nof Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea that street vendors
\nshould be regulated and guided instead of being evicted.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the street vendors threatened to resist if the city
\nofficers conducted raids against them during Ramadhan.<\/p>\n
\"We will fight against it with force, if we have to,\" said
\nMunawir, a street vendor in Jatinegara area, East Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"I have a family to feed. Besides, I need money to celebrate
\nIdul Fitri,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"I don't understand why the administration always treats us
\nlike trash. We are vendors, not hoodlums.\"<\/p>\n
Another street vendor in the area, Munawir, said he always
\npaid Rp 1,500 as a daily fee to a subdistrict officer.<\/p>\n
Munawir has run his business in the area for over five years.
\nIn the past couple of years, the administration had evicted them
\nseveral times, he said. However, the vendors always reerected
\ntheir temporary stalls soon after the eviction.<\/p>\n
Separately, Tinus, who operates in Tanah Abang, said that
\neviction was nothing new to street vendors. He said that he would
\nusually suspend his business activities when he heard about a
\nplanned operation against street vendors, but would set up his
\nstall again after a few days.<\/p>\n
Tinus, 28, who sells sport shoes off Jl. Fachrudin, near Tanah
\nAbang market, said he always paid a fee of Rp 2,000 to an officer
\nfrom Tanah Abang market.<\/p>\n
\"We are legal vendors although we don't rent a stall in the
\nmarket building,\" he claimed. \"Being a street vendor is the only
\nthing we can do and I think it's better than being a hoodlum or a
\nthief.\"<\/p>\n
Another street vendor in the Pasar Minggu area, South Jakarta,
\nshared the same view.<\/p>\n
\"We need a space. All this time, the administration has
\nevicted us without providing any solution,\" Medi told the Post,
\non Jl. Pasar Minggu.<\/p>\n
Medi usually earned up to Rp 50,000 a day, but his earnings
\nwould double during Ramadhan.<\/p>\n
\"Does the administration expect us to become criminals?\" he
\nsaid, questioning the Jakarta Public Order Office's policy on the
\ncrack down against them.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/street-vendors-allowed-to-operate-during-ramadhan-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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