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)