Bylaw on public order to be reviewed

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Socially disadvantaged people, including street vendors, prostitutes, transvestites and becak (pedicab) drivers, can breathe a sigh of relief as Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso has promised to review the controversial bylaw on public order.

During a hearing with House of Representatives Commission II for home and legal affairs on Thursday, he agreed to review bylaw No. 11/1988, which had caused clashes between such people and officers of the public order agency.

"The bylaw will be reviewed this year. But we still need a bylaw on public order," Sutiyoso said.

The governor responded to the commission's call that the bylaw should be reviewed as it was considered no longer relevant to the current situation.

Legislator Panda Nababan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle suggested the reviewed bylaw should include justice and humanity in its philosophy.

Panda said the bylaw, which contained 33 articles, should be equitable in setting out both the rights and obligations of the Jakarta administration and its residents.

"How come 23 of the articles refer to prohibitions on residents while only two refer to the administration's obligations?" he queried.

The prohibitions include a ban on trading and sleeping on the sidewalk, green areas, riverbanks and other public places. The operation of becak is also banned by the bylaw.

During the first year of the bylaw's implementation, a transvestite jumped into a river and drowned to evade public order officers during a night crackdown on transvestites in Central Jakarta.

Street vendors and becak drivers are often involved in clashes with public order officers. One security officer was even mobbed to death in a clash with becak drivers in Cideng, Central Jakarta, last year.

During the operations, thousands of becak and street vendors' merchandise were seized and stored at the city's warehouses. They had to pay hundreds of thousands of rupiah to get their belongings back.

Activists sued the administration in the local court, demanding a revocation of the bylaw, which was considered a violation of human rights, but the lawsuit was rejected.

Head of the urban division of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto stated that his institute and the Jakarta Social Institute (ISJ) had drafted a new bylaw on public order offenses.

"ISJ worked on the social and philosophical aspects while LBH formulated the legal aspects," Tubagus said after the House's hearing on Thursday.