Concern over small businesses

Concern over small businesses

From Suara Karya

State railway company PT KAI does not side with the "little people" running small businesses just to keep body and soul together.

The company's repressive measures against street and sidewalk vendors along the route taken by electric trains from Jakarta to Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi are highly regrettable. As PT KAI actually wants these vendors to rent stalls, it can in fact use a more elegant manner in dealing with them. The 1945 Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to work.

PT KAI can find other ways to ensure that these vendors can do their business in an orderly manner, and it should not use the comfort of train passengers as a pretext for preventing street and sidewalk vendors from doing business along the train route. PT KAI must also realize that its service to passengers is very bad.

In this context, PT KAI must realize that it is still not able to provide special cars exclusively for women. The company is still unable to prevent passengers from sitting on the roofs of trains. It must also realize that many of its facilities are in bad condition, and explain to the public why it always claims to suffer losses while its trains are overcrowded every day.

Last but not least, in 2003 alone 30 people were killed, 24 people were seriously injured and 20 others sustained minor injuries because of accidents related to electric trains connecting Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi. Shouldn't the entire PT KAI management assume full responsibility for this?

NURDIN AR Jakarta