City races on with pedicabs mass operation
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)