Cops, officials, thugs worst highway robbers: Truckers

Ridwan Max Sijabat and Oyos Saroso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Lampung

Pardede, a truck driver, had just eaten a meal at a busy roadside Begadang Restaurant, Bandarlampung. But while his stomach was full, his wallet was not.

Gazing out at the traffic, it did not take much time for Pardede to share his concerns with The Jakarta Post.

His main problem was the extortion along Sumatra highways -- the illegal levies he had to pay to police and officials at the many weighing stations.

Pardede said most of the stations were not about protecting standards or safety but about collecting illegal levies. Most inspections were generally lackadaisical, he said.

"Even though the load we carry does not exceed the required tonnage, we still have to pay levies," Pardede, who usually transports fruit from Medan to the Kramat Jati wholesale market in Jakarta, said.

Pardede said extortion was widespread on highways in South Sumatra, Lampung, and when entering Jakarta.

Drivers, he said, usually set aside about Rp 400,000 (US$44.00) to Rp 500,000 for uang rokok, or "cigarette money", for a one-way journey, because there were up to 30 of such posts on a normal route, be they official weighing stations or illegal ones, along the highway.

"Our employers always provide money, about Rp 300,000 for a one-way trip, but the amount is never enough," he said.

Djauluhan Sidabutar, a driver for a cargo company in Pluit, North Jakarta, agreed.

He said almost all police offices, highway checkpoints, military posts and special forestry police units on the East and Central Sumatra highways imposed between Rp 20,000 and Rp 100,000 each in illegal levies on trucks transporting commodities from Sumatra to Java.

Sidabutar said most drivers had no other choice but to pay the illegal fees to ensure they arrived at their destinations on time.

"Despite no traffic violations and complete paperwork, all officers find new excuses for extorting drivers and we generally give up because we cannot argue. If we are involved in bickering, our trucks will be forcefully withheld," Sidabutar said in Jakarta.

Highway extortion by officials was less common during the iron-fisted rule of former president Soeharto but became more widespread after the dictator stepped down in 1998, he said.

"During the New Order era, we paid only (military) security personnel. Now, we are facing hoodlums, police stations, police precincts, patrolling police, military offices, public transport office personnel, and weigh bridges."

The rampant extortion has sometimes spurred drivers into acts of violence. In mid-August, several truck drivers, furious over the illegal levies, went on a rampage and destroyed a collection post in Natar, South Lampung, putting it out of action for two months.

While the cost to business for the highway extortion has not been calculated, it is part of Rp 3 trillion a year in illegal levies estimated to be paid by businesses nationwide.

The money goes to gangsters, corrupt government officials and security personnel, a joint study by the Center of Asia-Pacific Studies and the United States Agency for International Development says.

The study based on a survey of 100 manufacturing companies in Sumatra, Java and Bali shows investors paid about 7.5 percent of their export fees in illegal levies.

The study's team leader, Mudrajad Kuncoro, said recently official export fees for manufacturing products had reached Rp 4 million a container.

"(It's not surprising) the illegal levies have reached about Rp 3 trillion because Indonesia exports around 10 million containers of manufactured products annually," he said.

Jambi's West Tanjungjabung Regent Usman Ermulan called on the new government to show its commitment to eliminating illegal levies, to ensure the distribution of basic commodities, and to attract investors to Sumatra.