Explosive time looms as festive season approaches

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)