Bandung wages war against roadside vendors

Bandung wages war against roadside vendors

Yuli Tri Suwarni
The Jakarta Post
Bandung

Bandung municipality in West Java has started to clamp down on
roadside vendors for their contribution to the city's traffic
woes.

Mayor Aa Tarmana initiated an operation against roadside
vendors on the eve of Lebaran last Saturday targeted at vendors
who had set up business in the city square.

Some 600 officers from Bandung's Public Order Office
demolished the makeshift kiosks and tents they found and
transported all the vendors' belongings to the municipal office.
No resistance was encountered during the first day of the
operation.

But several vendors said that the operation was inhumane.
Some of them tried to confront the mayor, merely asking for time
to seek another place to do business.

Aa vowed to continue raids on the street vendors, at least
within the month of December. "We just want Bandung to be free
from roadside vendors. We're fed up with people accusing us of
being incapable of handling public order," said Aa.

A large number of Bandung citizens have complained about
roadside vendors, locally known as pedagang kaki lima, blocking
the roads and causing traffic congestion.

Roadside vendors have occupied several strategic spots in the
city; around the city square, Jl. Asia Afrika, Jl. Dalem Kaum,
Jl. Karapitan, Jl. Dewi Sartika and part of Jl. Otto Iskandar
Dinata (from Pasar Baru to Tegallega). Jl. Sudirman and Jl.
Merdeka are also their business spots.

Mayor Aa has also instructed his subordinates to stop imposing
levies on roadside vendors. "All official and unofficial levies
must be stopped from now on," said Aa, referring to illegal fees
imposed by certain unscrupulous law and order officials on the
vendors.

Separately, Buyung, who opened his kiosk right in front of the
municipal building said that he paid Rp 300,000 per month to the
coordinator of roadside vendors around the city square.

Buyung, who sold women's underwear, said he had no idea
whether or not the levy was legal. "But the amount of money was
said to be, among other things, for security," said Buyung, who
came from West Sumatra.

He didn't look perturbed when the officers approached him and
ordered him to leave. "We've experienced this. We'll be back some
day. The municipality needs money from us, doesn't it."

Maman Suparman, assistant to the Bandung mayor on public
administration, said that around 900,000 out of 2.3 million
residents of Bandung were migrants. "Most of them work in the
informal sector, and tens of thousands of them are roadside
vendors," Maman said.

The municipal secretary, Dada Rosada, said that the
administration had earlier allowed locals to work as roadside
vendors due to the country's economic crisis.

"The municipality has been too tolerant and ignored law
enforcement. Illegal roadside vendors are, actually, subject to
Bylaw No. 6/1995 on city cleanliness and order. Those violating
the law will get three-months imprisonment or pay a Rp 5,000
fine," Dada said. "The result is that many migrants have
benefited from the municipality's leniency."

Mayor Aa's action was believed to be part of the
implementation of Java governors' agreement to give priority to
people from their own provinces when filling job vacancies,
including in the informal sector, in their effort to curb
migration to major cities such as Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang,
Surabaya and Yogyakarta.

Budi Radjab, a sociologist of the Bandung-based Padjadjaran
University, criticized the mayor's action, saying that things
were too late. "Roadside vendors have been a problem for the past
five years. But the administration turned a deaf ear to
complaints as it benefited from levies collected from vendors."

The city market office records indicate that the municipality
enjoys at least Rp 3 billion per annum in levies collected from
roadside vendors.

Budi said he was worried that the municipality's aggressive
action could trigger unrest. "And I am skeptical that the
administration will be successful in this matter. Usually the
vendors return after such an operation."