Council wants revocation of bylaw banning pedicabs

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council vowed on Tuesday to fight for the revocation of a 1988 bylaw that prohibits becak (pedicab) from operating in the city.

Deputy Council Speaker Tarmidi Suhardjo told representatives of some 2,000 pedicab riders staging a protest in front of the council building on Tuesday that the council was considering issuing a bylaw that will allow limited pedicab operations in the city.

"We will soon invite executives of the City administration to discuss a plan to revoke the bylaw and arrange for a new one," he said.

"The new bylaw will regulate the operational zones for pedicabs," Tarmidi from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) said.

"In the future, pedicabs may be allowed to operate in certain areas, such as housing complexes. But the city's main streets will remain prohibited for them."

The bylaw No. 11/1988 on Public Order prohibits pedicabs from being operating anywhere in the city.

Chairwoman of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) Wardah Hafidz, who led the protest, said they would return to the City Council building early next month to find out whether the council keeps its promise on the new bylaw.

She said the new bylaw should clearly state the regulations for pedicab drivers trying to cross the city's main streets, which often connect two separate residential areas.

"For the time being, we call on the City administration to stop seizing pedicabs," she said.

Some 2,000 riders with their pedicabs crowded the sidewalks and parts of Jl. Kebon Sirih itself in Central Jakarta, where the council building is situated, causing traffic jams.

The riders, from the city's five mayoralties, started arriving gradually in the area early on Tuesday morning.

Some of the drivers unfurled posters demanding they be allowed to return to the city's streets and the revocation of the bylaws.

Dozens of police officers were deployed to direct the pedicab riders.

Tarmidi criticized the pedicab riders and the UPC activists for not notifying the councilors of the protest.

"Council Speaker Edy Waluyo phoned me in the morning and asked me to greet the pedicab riders. In the future they should inform us of their visits before they arrive," he said.

But Wardah rejected the accusation, saying she had informed the Council's secretariat about the protest.

The council's move to revoke the bylaw, however, was challenged by an executive of the City's public order office Toha Reno.

"The City Council cannot unilaterally revoke the bylaw without the City administration's approval," Toha said on Tuesday.

He condemned the pedicab riders for breaking city regulations, saying most of the drivers were not Jakarta residents.

"They are not Jakarta residents. So they should obey the city's regulations if they work here," he said.

Earlier last year Governor Sutiyoso said he would tolerate the pedicab riders here because of the prolonged economic crisis.

Since then the number of pedicabs have increased significantly. Sutiyoso then revoked his statement, ordering his officials to conducts raid against pedicabs. (jun)