Angry terminal vendors break bus windows

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)