400-strong team to restore order in Tanah Abang

JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta mayoralty is to deploy today a 400-strong team, comprised of military and police officers, to put Tanah Abang vendors operating along Jl. Kebon Jati in order, an official said.

Central Jakarta Mayor Andi Subur Abdullah said the team's deployment was vital because the 1,352 listed vendors operating in the area had caused havoc.

"The vendors will be ordered to vacate the northern side of the street. Only the southern side is temporarily allowed to be used," he said.

The municipality will also prevent vendors from operating along Jl. Jati Baru, Jl. Fakruddin and Jl. KH Mas Mansyur, he said.

Subur reiterated that only the southern part of Jl. Kebon Jati could be used by vendors.

"Actually we can remove them from the streets. But because the city is still preparing a plot of land for a new market to relocate them, they can stay there temporarily."

He said that those unable to find space along the southern part of Jl. Kebon Jati will be asked to move to the Kebon Jati market, which is not fully occupied.

Public order officers started cleaning up parts of the area yesterday and installed a fence to prevent vendors from using the prohibited areas.

The mayoralty is currently in the process of clearing a 4,000- square-meter plot of land near Kebon Jati to relocate all vendors operating along the streets.

On Thursday, the mayoralty invited 53 trader representatives to its office so they could be informed about the cleanup plan.

"We ask the traders to understand and be patient," Subur said.

The cleanup is aimed at ridding the streets of increasingly complicated problems which, among other things, facilitated the existence of hoodlums.

"The mushrooming number of hoodlums cannot be separated from the presence of traders," he said. "Hoodlums ask for money from the traders and promise to protect them in return.

"After clearing the streets of vendors, we will rejuvenate the red-light district of Bongkaran and the unlicensed hotels and massages parlors.

"We will crack down on about 10 hotels along Jl. Kebon Jati that we suspect are being used as prostitution houses. Basically, they have violated their building use permits."

Subur said the Tanah Abang issue was no longer considered merely an urban problem but a national political issue.

"Many parties have conflicting interests in Tanah Abang. That is why any problems emerging in Tanah Abang will be brought out into the open," he said.

He cited various examples, including the hoodlums, as issues that had been politicized by some parties.

The mayor said he would not hesitate to take stern action against officers found guilty of extorting money or collecting illegal levies from the vendors.

He denied accusations that the mayoralty had been collecting levies from street vendors.

"I tell you again: the city never issued a regulation to collect levies from the traders. If there's any such levy, it must be illegal.

"If the city collects levies, it means that we are legalizing them as vendors, which we won't do."

The vendors, who have been forced to pay daily levies, have refused to reveal who collects the levies from them. They just entrust the matter to the officials.

"We can't say anything," Hendra, one of the traders, said. "We fear for our lives now."

Subur said the city had conducted four operations over the past two months to get rid of vendors, hoodlums, prostitutes and other social outcasts living in the area.

"In a joint operation this week alone, we have rounded up 19 hoodlums. They have been brought to the Central Jakarta Police precinct for further questioning," Subur said.

The mayor said that the number of hoodlums in the area was only 30. The press had blown the hoodlum matter out of proportion and the thugs were now viewed as the "owners" of Tanah Abang, he said.

"Hoodlums captured in the operation will be obliged to join a basic training program held by Jakarta Police. They are expected to train as security guards.

"They may be hired by several private companies but they certainly will not be operating in Tanah Abang," the deputy chief of Central Jakarta Police, Maj. Ronnie F. Sompie, said.

In a related development, there is to be a cleanup program from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. today to clear the street of tables and carts used by traders. The operation is also expected to install traffic signs along the streets.

Perumka, the state-owned railway company, will also put lights around the nearby railway tracks. (07/04)