Glodok are shakes off the gloom once again
Glodok are shakes off the gloom once again
JAKARTA (JP): Business activities at Harco Glodok electronics
center in West Jakarta stated to show signs of life on Tuesday
amid fears of further rioting in the predominantly ethnic-Chinese
business district.
Several stores opened their doors to customers under the
watchful eyes of dozens of uniformed police officers, while
others whose stores were burned or vandalized by mobs during
rioting on Saturday were still busy cleaning up the mess.
While the roadside next to the building remained vacant since
the rioting, the curb on the opposite side of the road was
occupied with at least four street vendors selling pirated VCDs.
The police, deployed to maintain security at the electronics
center, made no attempt to shut down the vendors, who were just
few steps away from them.
The Jakarta administration announced on Monday it would no
longer tolerate the sale of pirated VCDs in the vicinity of Harco
Glodok.
"If I don't run the business, how am I going to earn money?"
said Roni, one of the VCD traders.
Like other vendors, Roni said he did not fear the possibility
of further police raids against pirated VCDs and their vendors.
"Look, there are many police officers around here and they do
nothing," he said, pointing to the police officers.
Roni said he did not open his business last Saturday because
he had heard there would be a police raid in the area on that
day.
"I heard a rumor about it, so I decided not to trade on that
day," he said.
The early-morning raid by officers of the National Police
Headquarters caused a riot on Saturday, leaving dozens of stores
in Glodok and the nearby area burned and vandalized by the angry
traders, who were accompanied by groups of youths.
The raid by the National Police officers has been criticized
by many people, including House of Representatives Speaker Akbar
Tandjung, particularly since it was conducted on May 13, the
second anniversary of the bloody riots, burning and looting in
the capital.
On Monday, an executive of the Indonesian Tape Recording
Companies (Asiri) insisted that members of the association do not
pay the police vast sums to raid the increasing number of traders
of pirated VCDs on the capital's streets.
"Why should we pay? It's the police's job to investigate and
conduct raids," Bimo Suryono of Asiri told The Jakarta Post.
"But we prepare, for instance, breakfast or lunch for the
police. But we do nothing beyond that," Bimo said after a meeting
with Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Nurfaizi.
During the meeting, Bimo was accompanied by executives of
other related associations, such as the Association of Indonesian
Songwriters and Music Arrangers (Pappri) and People Against
Copyrights Piracy and Pornography (Mappi).
The music organizations' executives met Nurfaizi to personally
thank him for trying to put a stop to the sale of pirated VCDs in
the capital. (09/ylt)