Decorated pedicabs color the streets of Klayan

Decorated pedicabs color the streets of Klayan

By Y.R. Prahista

CIREBON, West Java (JP): The young man smiled bitterly when
told that the becak (three-wheel pedicab) was a symbol of
poverty. He was even more saddened when he heard pedicab drivers
compared to horses.

"If there were a different way to make money, I would not want
to work as a becak driver," said Talim, from Klayan, Cirebon,
West Java.

Klayan is located some three kilometers north of the city
center of Cirebon. The majority of men there make their living as
pedicab drivers. "We depend on the becak for our livelihood,"
said another driver. "Driving a becak is hard work," he added.

The pedicab is often seen as the cause of traffic jams in
urban areas, which also views the pedicabs with some disdain as
being from a different era. What is more, some people also say
that pedicab drivers are being exploited. As a result, a number
of large cities like Jakarta and Bandung have implemented becak-
free zones.

Some regional governments still allow pedicabs to operate in
their areas, but have issued new regulations to control their
use. They have divided the pedicabs into ones which operate in
the afternoon and ones which do their rounds at night. The
difference can be seen in the color of the pedicabs.

In Cirebon, the night pedicabs are predominantly white in
color. Equipped with flashlights and a horns, they can operate
safely in the dark. The afternoon pedicabs have a basic color of
blue and are not specially equipped for use at night.

Theoretically these regulations should lead to fewer becak on
the roads, but, in fact, this has not happened. The use of
different colored becak to distinguish their times of operation
did not hold long, largely due to complaints from pedicab owners
about the difficulty of providing two pedicabs to one driver who
worked both in the day and night.

Sanaji, 50, a becak driver since 1972, is trying to get into
the management side of the pedicab business. "I sometimes buy and
sell becak, but the money just isn't enough."

The father of three who did not complete his second year of
elementary school, hopes to someday become a becak boss, renting
vehicles to drivers. "It is good to be the boss. You receive
money every day," he said, adding that drivers only made money
after a day of toil.

When buying and selling pedicabs, Sanaji decorates the becak
to lure customers. The two front wheels are painted with
decorations or the owner's or his wife's name.

Other pedicab owners also decorate their vehicles. The insides
of the pedicabs are painted with pictures according to the taste
of the owner. In the beginning, one would only find wayang
figures like Gatutkaca, Bima or the five Pandawas.

There were also pictures of national heroes such as
Diponegoro, Imam Bonjol and Kartini, which gave way to paintings
of Rambo and Superman. Now the preference is for beautiful stars
from television and the movies.

Since the era of reform began, quite a few pedicab owners have
had pictures of Megawati painted on the back of the seat. The
chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and the
country's vice president is clearly an extremely popular figure
among the masses.

"In one night, I can paint seven pictures of Megawati," said
Talim, who paints becak. He earns Rp 10,000 for each picture.

The pictures are painted on plastic sheets, and while not the
exact likeness of Megawati, Talim is proud because he can express
his feelings for his idol. "We adore Megawati," he said
earnestly.

Klayan has no fewer than nine studios busy at work decorating
pedicabs. The workers at these studios are skilled in their use
of color, despite the fact that they use ordinary brushes with
metal paint and spray paint.

Nor do they know the names of the country's more famous
painters, such as the late Affandi, although the maestro hailed
from Cirebon. Yet the work of these becak painters cannot be
ignored, because it has enriched the people of the Cirebon
region.

The ethnic characteristics of Cirebon are reflected in the
bright colors used by the painters, replete with ornaments,
pictures and batik designs. The overall impression is that of
dynamism.

"We are better than the becak painters of Tegal," said Sanaji,
one of the artists. The proof? Many of the pedicabs operating in
the Tegal area are decorated in Klayan.

An even greater source of pride for Sanaji is that six becak
have been exported to Germany. "A university teacher from Germany
bought them," he said.

The vehicles were shipped in pieces together with rattan
handicraft from Cirebon. A becak of standard size costs from Rp
900,000 to Rp 1,000,000. "A small becak is cheaper, only Rp
600,000," he said.

Due to the monetary crisis, Sanaji had to buying pedicabs for
one year because the price of the materials, such as wood, tires
and paint, increased sharply while his purchasing power decreased
sizably.

"We have been back in business for the past six months only,"
he said.