City races on with pedicabs mass operation

JAKARTA (JP): Undeterred by a lawsuit filed by becak (pedicab) drivers, Governor Sutiyoso said on Friday the city administration would continue with its plan to clear the vehicles off the streets.

The governor defended the mass operation as in accordance with the 1988 City Bylaw No. 11 on Public Order.

"We will conduct a mass and simultaneous operation against becak on Feb. 23, one day after the deadline for the owners and drivers to sell their vehicles ends," Sutiyoso said at City Hall.

"The administration's policy to procure the pedicabs is a form of the city's tolerance to the vehicles' drivers and owners."

Under the policy, the city administration will purchase each vehicle for Rp 250,000 (about US$34) instead of merely impounding them. The city administration will also provide transportation allowances for drivers who wish to return to their hometowns.

Data at the city administration show there are 6,651 pedicabs in the city. The administration has so far purchased 1,863 of the vehicles and sent 1,557 drivers, including their pedicabs, to their hometowns.

A total of 312 pedicabs which were impounded in a series of raids are stored in the city's Cakung warehouse in North Jakarta and another 2,979 pedicabs are still operating in the city. Meanwhile, 18 pedicabs have been transformed into vegetable carts.

Blaming

Drivers and activists have condemned the policy of purchasing the vehicles, particularly because they blame Sutiyoso for causing the return of pedicabs to the city's streets.

"It was Sutiyoso himself who invited the drivers to come back to the capital. But, it was also he who then retracted his words," social and human rights activist Wardah Hafidz has repeatedly said.

President Abdurrahman Wahid has come out in support of enforcing the ban on pedicabs. The President told a gathering of some 10,000 poor city residents last November that it would be "inhumane" to let the drivers earn their living pedaling the vehicles. He recommended the drivers look for alternative means of work.

The governor said he was ready to deal with a lawsuit filed by the pedicab drivers, an action he described as within their rights.

"I'll be ready to go before the court. We'll see which party is right," he said.

"I'm just trying to uphold the supremacy of the law. The 1988 bylaw stipulates that pedicabs are banned here."

About 130 pedicab drivers filed a class action against the governor's policy at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday. (05)