Councillors irk vendors for breaking promise

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A meeting between street vendors working on Jl. Fachrudin and Jl. Wahid Hasyim in Central Jakarta and the City Council's Commission B on budgetary affairs, ended up in a quarrel on Tuesday.

Sulaiman Lubis, the coordinator of at least 20 representatives of the vendors, banged his fist on the meeting room table repeatedly and started cursing the councillors for preventing them from sitting on the same negotiation table with Central Jakarta Mayor Muhayat.

"The councillors are all liars. This meeting is simply a waste of time. Why are the councillors preventing us from meeting the mayor?" said Sulaiman at the top of his voice, while refusing to sit down.

The commission had met with Central Jakarta Mayor Muhayat earlier in the day to discuss the fate of the vendors following the administration's decision to rid Jl. Fachrudin and Jl. Wahid Hasyim of street vendors effective April 10.

Commission chairman Abdul Mutholib Shihab of the Democratic Party faction tried to calm the vendors to no avail.

"We did not bring together the mayor and vendors at the same table since we didn't want them to be caught in bickering, which might in turn obstruct efforts to seek the best solution to the problem," said councillor Nurmansyah Lubis of the Prosperous Justice Party faction.

The quarrel ended after the vendors walked out of the meeting room dissatisfied with the councillors' excuses.

"We are disappointed with the councillors who promised to arrange a meeting with the mayor," said another vendor, Afrizal.

"We will seek support from the House of Representatives instead of the city councillors," he said, adding that the vendors also opposed options proposed by Central Jakarta Mayor Muhayat.

In the earlier meeting, Muhayat had proposed three options.

"They have to stop their business there altogether or they can run their business based on certain hours to be decided later by the administration or they have to move to another area."

Muhayat added that the administration had decided to clear the roads of street vendors whose stalls encroach on the sides of the road and cause chronic traffic jams.

The Central Jakarta municipality hosts most embassies, offices of multinational companies and government offices.

The administration also removed vendors who were occupying the sidewalks and roadside of Jl. Salemba and Jl. Kramat last month as part of efforts to clean up the city.