Angry terminal vendors break bus windows

JAKARTA (JP): About 500 fruit, candy and cigarettes vendors pelted and broke the windows of six intercity buses at the Pulogadung bus terminal, East Jakarta, in a protest against City Public Land Transportation Agency (DLLAJ) officials' rough actions for the past week.

Terminal chief Nadias Syam said, "DLLAJ officers arrived here at 9 a.m. to throw the vendors out of the terminal, as vendors had been given several warnings earlier to vacate the terminal."

The vendors, Nadias said, were in violation of city bylaw No. 11/1998 on City terminal management.

"When the DLLAJ officials were about to throw the vendors out, the vendors got angry and started protesting. It got out of control and they started pelting moving buses, breaking windows."

Nadias said the affected buses were two Dedy Jaya buses, three Sinar Jaya buses and a Handoyo bus. All are intercity buses.

A soft drink vendor in the area, Dody, said DLLAJ officials have conducted rough raids almost daily for the past week.

"They are rough and very strict with us. They have done this to us every day for the past week," Dody told The Jakarta Post.

Frustrated, the vendors at the terminal finally contacted their vendor friends in Bekasi, Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta and Tangerang, to organize a peaceful protest on Saturday against the DLLAJ officials.

"The protest was going along smoothly, until someone threw a stone at the vendors," Dody said.

"It could have been one of the ticket scalpers in the area. The vendors got very angry and started breaking windows of buses and the terminal's public facilities. They caused such a traffic jam," she said.

The crowd also broke windows of a ticket counter, a food kiosk and a musholla (small mosque).

A terminal security officer, who requested anonymity, said security officers could only secure the area at about 1 p.m. and five vendors later held talks with Nadias. They were identified as Syamsudin, Edi, Junaidi, Jamal and Ucok Jarot.

Syamsudin said the vendors were in a dilemma about whether to sell outside or inside the terminal.

"If we sell inside, we deal with DLLAJ officials. If we sell outside, it causes traffic jams. What are we supposed to do? I'm telling you now, we can't go anywhere else," Syamsudin said.

"We vendors have been in this terminal for years now. This is our selling place. Please don't kick us out of here."

A driver of a bus plying the Pulogadung-Senen route said the terminal was closed to buses for at least an hour in the morning, while the protest was happening.

"When the protest got wild, buses could only stop at Grogol in West Jakarta and passengers were forced to get down, whether they liked it or not. Some buses dared to go as far as a factory near the terminal but never dared to venture further and turned back."

Vendor representatives later signed an agreement with Nadias that both parties would allow the vendors to operate in the area, as long as they could maintain order and control the number of vendors operating in the area.

Vendors were also urged to use identification cards and arrange daily three-shift schedules. (ylt/06)