Eviction taken calmly by hoodlum leader

Eviction taken calmly by hoodlum leader

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration began to evict the occupants of around
170 of 600 houses located in Kalijodo brothel and gambling
compound in Pejagalan subdistrict, North Jakarta, and Angke
subdistrict in West Jakarta on Monday.

However, hoodlum leaders in the area remained calm, saying the
eviction was merely short, sharp, shock therapy for the
community.

Pepenk, not his real name, claimed it would be easy to build a
gambling parlor in the evicted area thanks to Tambora, West
Jakarta, district chief Mashuri who had boasted that his gang
could build a totally new parlor on the same soil.

"The district chief told me everything was fine. He was only
doing his job to clean up the debris. Soon, he told me, I could
rebuild the gambling parlor. It's just temporary shock therapy,"
said Pepenk, who leads one of the three gangs in Kalijodo.

He said there would always be opportunities to negotiate with
the landlord, in this case the district and the mayoralty, to
build gambling parlors in the area.

During the eviction, district deputy chief Rohali was seen as
being lenient to Pepenk as well as other officials.

"Excuse me Bang (big brother), will you allow me to clear your
house?" Rohali asked politely, pointing toward two houses that
served as Pepenk's gambling spot.

One of Pepenk's thugs, Rudi, not his real name, said his boss
could easily hand over a "charity" payment to both the district
office and the police for legalizing his business.

All houses in Kalijodo were built illegally as they did not
have a building permit (IMB) from the government. Besides,
erecting houses along riverbanks was also banned by the city's
bylaw No. 2/1993, chapters 8 and 9 on public order. The compound
is divided into two areas by the two-meter-wide Angke drain and
belongs to two mayoralties.

Seno, one of the pimps whose brothel was also cleared of
occupants, said he had demanded financial compensation before the
eviction took place. Otherwise, he and other residents would
resist.

"We paid a lot of money to the North Jakarta authority. What
was the money for if in the end they still decided to demolish
our place and source of living?" he asked emotionally.

The West Jakarta mayoralty, in action carried out by the
Tambora district office, had cleared five houses in the area in
order to remove obstructions to the Angke drain.

Mashuri said the order was merely to normalize the flow of the
drain and the crossing West flood canal instead of shutting down
Kalijodo.

A similar objective was also echoed by the North Jakarta
Deputy Mayor, Pinondang Simanjuntak.

"Our main purpose in clearing the houses was merely to
normalize the flow of the West flood canal and Duri river. We are
not here to shut down the place," he said.

When asked about the belated attempt of the mayoralty to clear
the illegal compound, Pinondang said he had no idea as he had
just taken over the post two months ago.

"I have no idea why they did not clear the area a long time
ago. Our current attempt was just coincidental with the riots in
Kalijodo, as we had previously planned to clear illegal houses.
We set a target of clearing a total of 600 houses illegally built
along the rivers."

Most of the houses cleared on Monday were formerly used as
gambling parlors and brothels. They were razed by fire on Feb. 22
during a gang war between two different ethnic groups of thugs,
which claimed one life.