City under fire for 'discrimination' against sidewalk vendors
City under fire for 'discrimination' against sidewalk vendors
Damar Harsanto, Jakarta
The city administration was slammed on Wednesday for what critics
said was its harsh treatment of sidewalk vendors, while at the
same time turning a blind eye to businesses being run out of
houses not designated for commercial or business purposes.
"It is OK if the administration wants to uphold the
regulations, even by force, but please do not discriminate," said
Adolf Heuken, the author of several books on Jakarta's history.
Heuken said the administration discriminatorily enforced Bylaw
No. 11/1988 on public order by forcibly evicting sidewalk vendors
but turning a blind eye to other enterprises that also violated
the bylaw.
"Look at the Menteng residential area (in Central Jakarta).
Many houses have been converted into commercial places, but the
administration has yet to take action to regularize them," he
said.
Heuken was a panelist at a book discussion at the Jakarta
Media Center in Central Jakarta to celebrate the fourth
anniversary of non-governmental organization the Jakarta
Residents Forum (Fakta). The book being discussed was Fakta's
recently released Bunga Trotoar (Sidewalk Flowers), a survey of
street vendors in the city.
Panelist Agustinus Herwanto of Fakta also voiced concern over
the administration's policies.
"If the administration is not discriminative, why does it
allow gas stations, malls and shopping centers to occupy green
zones across the city?" he asked.
Street vendors are frequently blamed for traffic congestion
because they take over the sidewalks and spill over into the
road.
The administration earlier said it lacked the space to
accommodate all of the street vendors in the city. Officials said
they could only provide space for 6,609 out of 147,000 registered
sidewalk vendors, plus the thousands of unregistered ones.
Tasman, a street vendor in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, said
about 250 vendors in the area had been trying in vain to obtain
permits from the municipality for the past two years. Instead, he
said, the vendors had to deal with extortion by thugs and
officials.
"The community unit chief even demands a fee from us, saying
it is part of the implementation of the autonomy law. Is that
reasonable?" he said.
Heuken said street vendors first really appeared in the
capital in the 1950s. However, the administration has never come
up with a spatial planning concept to accommodate the vendors.
And, he said, with the lack of job opportunities in the city
more and more people will set themselves up as small-scale
entrepreneurs in order to survive.