City to be pedicab-free again by end of July

City to be pedicab-free again by end of July

JAKARTA (JP): Public order officers and members of the
security forces will take to the streets next week to crack down
on pedicabs to ensure the city is becak-free once again by the
end of the month, officials said yesterday.

Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi has
told the city's five mayors to cleanse the capital of the three-
wheeled pedicabs from next Tuesday.

West Jakarta Mayor Sutardjianto and Central Jakarta Mayor Andi
Subur Abdullah said they would inform pedicab drivers of the plan
so they could leave voluntarily before the deadline.

"Actually we started transporting the pedicabs back to their
places of origin last week and up to now 111 of the approximately
600 pedicabs (in this area) have left," Sutardjianto said.

He said the trucks which transported the pedicabs were
escorted by security personnel in anticipation of incidents, such
as the drivers resisting the "repatriation" program.

However, he refused to reveal the number of security personnel
or trucks that his administration had made available.

Andi Subur also said that up to yesterday 150 pedicabs plying
Central Jakarta streets had been transported back to their places
of origin in West and Central Java.

The other three mayors were unavailable for comment.

On July 2 Governor Sutiyoso revoked his own decision to allow
the pedicabs to operate again in the city seven days of
permitting them on the grounds that the drivers had violated
forbidden areas by operating not only in alleys and small streets
but on major thoroughfares as well.

The city banned pedicabs in 1988 on the grounds that the slow
man-powered vehicles worsened traffic congestion.

The head of the Indonesian Democratic Party faction in the
City Council, Lukman Mokoginta, said the governor should discuss
the plan with the pedicab drivers before deciding to crackdown on
the vehicles' presence.

"Remember that it is Sutiyoso's fault that pedicabs were
allowed to operate again in the city. So it is just appropriate
to ask him to talk it over with the drivers," he said.

Abdul Rahim, a distraught pedicab driver in West Jakarta, said
he was very upset with the administration's decision to cleanse
the city of pedicabs.

"I just heard from my friends who joined the demonstration (on
Tuesday) that we were allowed to operate in narrow alleys," the
father of a teenage son said.

Asked whether he would follow the administration's
instructions, Rahim said that it was up to his colleagues.

"I will follow what my colleagues and the officials have
agreed. I just hope they give us a chance to make a living here.
It's very difficult to earn money these days," he said.

The 48-year-old driver from Pemalang in Central Java started
to operating here a week ago.

Rahim said he could earn Rp 7,000 (47 U.S. cents) a day after
paying a deposit of Rp 3,000 to his boss. "It is better than
working as a laborer in a roof-tile factory in my hometown where
I earned only Rp 3,000 to 4,000 a day," he said.

On Tuesday, about 2,000 pedicab drivers demonstrated at City
Hall demanding that they be allowed to operate in the city's
alleys and narrow streets.

The administration, however, told the drivers' representatives
that the city insisted on sticking to the existing 10-year-old
ordinance which states that Jakarta is a pedicab-free area and
prohibits any pedicabs from operating at anytime, anywhere in the
capital.

After the meeting, one of the representatives who claimed to
be drivers' coordinator, Slamet Edi Prayitno, told demonstrators
that the administration had promised "not to take stern action"
against them.

Neither Sutiyoso nor Kahfi could be reached for comment on
Slamet's claim. (ind)