'Don't burden people with new parking system'

The city administration plans to launch a new on-street parking system next month in a bid to raise more parking revenue for its coffers. Parking attendants expressed their objection as the new system would decrease their income. They claimed that they must give each day a percentage of the money collected from the parking fees to city officials and police, as told to The Jakarta Post.

Erfan, 27, is an freelance parking attendant working with his fellow friends in Slipi Jaya, West Jakarta. He resides in Kemanggisan, West Jakarta with his family:

As a parking attendant here, I am completely at odds with the new system parking. The system will only harm low-income people like me.

The city government only thinks of their own benefit without thinking about the poor. The city officials do not consider the opportunity for poor people.

Honestly speaking, on average I only earn around Rp 40,000, or even less, a day. That is after I hand over around Rp 50,000 to the local police and local community administration office (Bimas) every day to ensure our positions here.

The new system will surely favor the city administration and the company assigned to run the project. Besides, it is just nonsense that the city administration gets less parking revenue.

If the city administration doesn't get any revenue from parking, then where does the money we hand over to the local office go then?

The problem is that there is a leakage at the top level of the city in the revenue management. Every city resident believes that the city administration has abundant sources of revenue collected from the public. So, they should not burden the public further by the new parking system just to cover the management's irregularities.

Ade, 19, is a parking attendant on Jl. Boulevard Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. He resides in Cakung, East Jakarta with his relatives:

I didn't realize that there was going to be a new parking system in the city. But now that I do, I don't agree with mechanism of a parking system as it will be burdensome, particularly for parking attendants like me.

I rely on this profession to get by my in life here in the city. My relatives basically bought the rights from the previous group of parking attendants in this area for Rp 38 million, in order that we could run it.

Certainly it's a big amount of money for the lucrative business in this area. There is no time limitation here to operate.

You can imagine how many years we have to be parking attendants here to cover the buyout cost, if we only earn around Rp 50,000 a day.

It's real tough to be a parking attendant. It's wrong that many believe the parking attendants earn a lot of cash every day. We have to hand out Rp 50,000 to the city administration a day.

If the new parking system is implemented, I wonder how we will get cash from the motorists. So, we will not get any money to survive due to the electronic parking meters.

Jafar, 25, is a parking attendant on Jl. Bekasi Barat, East Jakarta. He resides in Matraman, East Jakarta, with his wife and son:

I don't know that there will be a new parking system. However, upon knowing how the system works, I completely disagree with that.

It means that we will likely not get cash if we manage to use the electronic system.

So, where could we get money then? Does it imply that the city administration will give us a salary every month? I don't think so and I don't want it.

People from low-income brackets like me are always in dire need of cash money every day. A monthly salary would not work for us here.

What about if my son gets sick and needs to see a doctor if I don't have cash every day? I don't know the city administration's way of making public policy but surely it always makes the public suffer.

We only earn around Rp 30,000 a day because we have to share three work shifts around the clock with the other fellow parking attendants. Many really count on their income from parking here.

We don't get much now, let alone with the new system. We pay Rp 36,000 every day to the city administration. Where does that money go?

-- Leo Wahyudi S