Indonesian 'Kancil' soon to replace Indian 'Bajaj'

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Ignoring protests from drivers and owners of the Indian three- wheeled Bajaj, the city administration will issue permits for 400 Indonesian-made Kancil next week as alternative transportation.

"Yes, we will soon allow 400 Kancil to operate in the city on the condition that 400 Bajaj are taken off the streets," Governor Sutiyoso told the press on Friday at City Hall.

He did not mention when the permits would be issued, but head of the City Transportation Agency Rustam Effendi said earlier that they would be issued next week.

Sutiyoso said the replacement of Bajaj with Kancil would be implemented gradually, as the Kancil producer could not replace all 14,000 Bajaj in the city. He also stressed that the replacement should improve the drivers' income.

The Bajaj has been a common feature of the city since the mid- 1970s.

In line with the plan, Rustam said his agency had already started an operation to seize Bajaj, particularly those being operated without a complete set of documents.

So far, however, he said only three illegal Bajaj had been seized since the operation kicked off last week.

Hundreds of Bajaj owners and drivers held a demonstration in front of City Council and City Hall after Sutiyoso announced that he would retire the Bajaj and replace it with Kancil.

"Bajaj will disappear when the Kancil are launched," Sutiyoso pledged in early August.

Rustam has even said that Bajaj would be dumped into the sea if the administration reached an agreement to replace all the vehicles.

"They could become rumpon (fish traps)," he said.

Angered by the statements, the Bajaj owners staged the rally, rejecting the plan, particularly because they would each be compensated Rp 5 million (US$588) for their Bajaj.

The market price of the vehicle is Rp 18 million.

They also claimed that the price of a Kancil, at Rp 34 million as offered by producer PT Kancil Automotive Marketing Industries, was too expensive. The Bajaj owners said they preferred to replace the two-stroke engine with a four-stroke engine, as it would only cost them Rp 5 million.

Another contentious issue was the Rp 50,000 daily rental fee for a Kancil, as Bajaj are rented at Rp 30,000 per day.

In addition, the protesters said maintaining a Bajaj, which is made of steel, was easier than the fiberglass Kancil.

The administration decided to replace the Bajaj, since the two-stroke-engine vehicle contributed to air and noise pollution in the capital.

Besides contributing to air pollution, the draft bylaw on transportation currently being discussed by the Council does not list three-wheeled vehicles as means of public transportation.

Several non-governmental organizations criticized the draft bylaw for excluding three-wheeled vehicles, such as Bajaj and becak pedicabs, as public transportation.

In the 1980s, the administration officially banned pedicabs as public transportation, dumping hundreds of seized pedicabs into the sea.

Due to prolonged economic crisis, hundreds of pedicabs returned to the city's streets in 1998.