City to reopen damaged traditional markets soon

City to reopen damaged traditional markets soon

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration will soon reopen
traditional markets damaged during last week's mass rioting in a
bid to help revive the city's crippled economic life, Governor
Sutiyoso has said.

Sutiyoso said on Wednesday that business would be resuscitated
by opening temporary markets on sites adjacent to the damaged
ones.

"Due to the tight city budget it isn't an easy job to totally
renovate the markets. However, building temporary markets
hopefully won't require too much money," he said, adding that the
administration planned to look into alternative sources of
funding for the project.

However, the governor did not say when renovation work on the
damaged structures would begin. "I still cannot tell you when the
work will take place because, as you know, activities throughout
the city haven't returned to normal yet."

The governor made the remarks in response to a city
councilor's appeal for the administration to take immediate
action to reopen the markets to ensure that essential foodstuffs
were readily available to the general public.

Head of the Council's Commission B for economic affairs,
Djafar Badjeber, urged the administration on Tuesday to make use
of any space in damaged markets to accommodate displaced traders
on a temporary basis.

"Life must go on and that means people need food every day.
Therefore, food traders should have the priority in temporary
markets," he told reporters.

Official data says 13 traditional markets throughout the city
were destroyed or damaged in the wake of last week's violence
triggered by the killing of four Trisakti University student
demonstrators last Tuesday.

More than 3,000 shops and malls were looted, vandalized or
destroyed in the riots that occurred from Wednesday through
Friday. Total losses are estimated at Rp 2.5 trillion.

Djafar proposed that members of the Armed Forces be deployed
at temporary markets to ensure the sites would not become an easy
target for looting.

He said PD Pasar Jaya, the city-owned market management
company which posted a net profit of Rp 4 billion last year,
should finance the establishment of provisional markets.

Djafar proposed that the administration hold its market
operation, or selling goods directly to the public, until
economic activities returned to normal.

"I hope the administration will sell basic commodities to
housing complexes where economic activities were disrupted by the
riots."

Residents in the worst-hit areas have complained of the
difficulty in obtaining foodstuffs because shops and shopping
malls near their homes were destroyed or damaged.

Rasid from Tangerang said his wife had to go to a traditional
market outside his complex early in the morning to shop. "A
nearby market was damaged by looters and its management is too
scared to reopen."

He said all canned goods were sold out in stores.

Jeanne, a housewife from Bekasi, has to visit Goro wholesale
market in Kelapa Gading, East Jakarta, because it is difficult to
find foodstuffs near her housing complex.

People flocked to Hero supermarket at Gondangdia, Central
Jakarta, yesterday.

Marsita from Central Jakarta said she had spent hours in vain
looking for shopping centers to get food supplies.

"I heard from my aunt that Hero supermarket here survived the
riot, so it doesn't matter that I had to travel a long way here,"
she said as she pushed a shopping cart brimming with canned
goods. (ind)