Hoodlumism has deep roots in Pulo Gadung bus terminal

Hoodlumism has deep roots in Pulo Gadung bus terminal

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"Drivers have to pay a variety of illegal fees to thugs if
they want to do their work in an orderly fashion and in peace,"
says Amin, 38, a driver plying the route from Pulo Gadung, East
Jakarta, to Pasar Gaplok, Central Jakarta.

He told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that every day each
driver plying the route had to pay around Rp 3,500 (US$ 0.39) to
a gang that "ruled" the terminal. The same gang controlled the
flow of public transportation vehicles into and out of the
terminal.

The gang, which placed men at every corner of the terminal,
decided which minivan could enter the terminal, which would leave
first and which could take passengers, Amin said.

"Late at night, when fewer passengers board my minivan, I have
to pay Rp 1,000 to thugs, who claim they will find passengers for
me," Amin said.

At every intersection and crossing around the terminal, he had
to pay Rp 100 to thugs before they were willing to allow his
minivan to pass, he said.

A striking example of how street thugs have power over traffic
in the terminal can be observed every day. Two street thugs, for
example, persuade drivers to make an illegal U-turn, which is
barred by only a chain. A driver of any vehicle, ranging from
buses, trucks and minivans to private cars, who wants to make the
turn, need only pay a certain amount of money and the thugs will
lower the chain to the ground. All this happens before the eyes
of the police.

Amin said that the total amount of money in illegal payments
to thugs operating in the terminal averaged out to Rp 5,000 per
day.

"The money I have to fork out for illegal payments has become
part of my regular daily expenditure, like the gasoline for my
vehicle," he said, while checking the engine of his minivan.

A report from Pulo Gadung police subprecinct shows that around
450 public transportation vehicles enter and leave the terminal
every day.

Separately, a 24-year-old man, who claimed to be working as a
payment collector said that drivers paid up voluntarily as a
contribution to maintain security and order in the terminal.

"If there were no one to keep the traffic in order, drivers
would try to get ahead of each other, and this would mean chaos
in the terminal," he said.

However, anyone who has ever visited Pulo Gadung terminal will
know that the terminal is totally chaotic.

The man -- who wished to remain anonymous -- said that all the
money went to a gang that would later share it out with policemen
and officials from the transportation agency.

"The gang divides the terminal into areas in accordance with
the routes taken by public transportation vehicles. One person's
in charge of each area," he said.

Chief of the subprecinct Second Insp. Soenaryo, however,
denied the allegation that an organized gang was operating in the
terminal.

He told the Post that people asking for money from drivers
were acting individually and posed no serious threat to the
security of passengers there.

"We still tolerate the presence of people asking for money
from drivers because, in reality, they help drivers do their
job," he said, adding that there was no possibility of getting
rid of them if there were no improvement in the country's
economy.

Soenaryo said that the police were resigned to the situation,
as it was one of the ways that some people coped with the
economic crisis.