Councillors irk vendors for breaking promise

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.