Explosive time looms as festive season approaches

JAKARTA (JP): Firecracker vendors have started to hit the city's streets, expecting big business during New Year celebrations and the upcoming Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan, despite a plan by the city police to conduct selective raids on their explosive circulation.

Several sidewalk vendors said on Friday that they would continue the business although they realized that the explosive materials were dangerous not only for them but also for the buyers.

Tonisah, a firecracker vendor in the Jati Bunder area close to the Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta, said the business had once a year made her a lot of money, more than enough to procure clothes and proper food for the Idul Fitri post-fasting celebration.

"The turnover can be around Rp 200,000 (US$28.5) to Rp 300,000 a day during the fasting month. And when the festivities of the New Year and Idul Fitri are nearer, I can even earn Rp 1 million in a day," she said.

"I use the money to buy new clothes for my children and food for Idul Fitri."

Another vendor in Jati Bunder, identified as Ohin, said the firecracker business in the Jati Bunder area was considered a wholesale business.

"That's why we should invest more money than other smaller vendors. I usually invest Rp 8 million for the business," he said.

Ohin said he had never experienced trouble in the business as no security officers or officials from the city's authorities prohibited him from running the business.

First Sgt. Y. Puryanto from the Tanah Abang police said there had been no instructions from his superiors to carry out raids on the traders, whose stalls were located just a few meters away from his office.

"The traders are local residents and it is difficult for us to take any action or to ask them to leave.

"Moreover, based on our experience, any raids cause trouble here that sometimes ends in violence," he said.

Puryanto said the police officers were therefore only instructed to control the business.

Contradictory

His statement was contradictory to the city police spokesman's recent statement that the police would conduct selective raids on the businesses and that any firecrackers which were produced or distributed without a license, would be seized.

The danger of the firecracker business was proven recently when two plastic sacks of firecrackers exploded in a taxi on Jl. Gatot Subroto, Central Jakarta.

The firecracker wholesale business is mostly found in the Pasar Pagi area in West Jakarta and at the Jatinegara market in East Jakarta.

Shops selling the explosive materials in Jatinegara were thronged by customers on Friday.

A retail firecracker vendor at the market, M. Toha, said the wholesale shops only opened once a year.

"They usually open their shops three months before Ramadhan and until Idul Fitri. After that, they close the shops or sell other kinds of goods," he said.

Meanwhile, city residents expressed hopes that the authority would do something to eradicate the distribution and selling of the explosive materials during the festive seasons.

Idris, head of a neighborhood association at the Kampung Bali subdistrict in Central Jakarta, said firecrackers had always caused trouble during the festive seasons, including cases of burned firecracker warehouses and children who were burned playing with firecrackers.

"We have limited rights to eradicate the circulation of firecrackers. The authority to perform the task, such as to close down the firecracker factories, rests on the government," he said.

Similar comments were also raised by housewives at the Kebon Kacang subdistrict in Central Jakarta.

Sri Sugiarti, a mother of four children, said her son was a victim of a firecracker explosion last year.

"Sometimes, youths use the firecrackers to fluster passersby or women. The authorities should do something," she said. (ind)