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."