Kuta incident leaves hawkers out in the cold

By Putu Wirata

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Kuta, one of the famous tourist destinations on this island, was an international harbor a few centuries ago. Then it was called Kuta-Mimba.

Nowadays, Kuta has been transformed into an international holiday haven full of hotels, inns, restaurants, amusement centers and all the facilities an international tourist can dream of having.

Thousands of people from practically all over Indonesia are fighting for space to eke a living there.

Until recently, cafes lined the exotic beaches until they were demolished on the demands of local customary village leaders. An estimated 2,500 hawkers and 1,500 roadside vendors are crowding the beaches and streets of Kuta.

At night, prostitutes and beggars also take to the street, fighting for tourists' money.

In the early hours of April 29, to the surprise of many, the usually peace-loving indigenous Balinese attacked vendors, who are mostly migrants. They ransacked or burned down hundreds of the vendors' pushcarts.

The most tragic result of the incident was the murder of Tojani Herlina, a hawker from Situbondo, East Java.

Lately, Kuta has been somewhat quiet with the absence of hawkers from the streets and beaches. Indigenous residents patrol the streets, stopping strangers for weapons.

The regent of Badung, Gusti Alit Putra, has promised to relocate the frightened traders to Kuta Parking Center, about three kilometers from the tourist center. But the plan has received a cold response from the migrants, who think the alternative area is not an appropriate place to do business.

"We thank Kuta people for allowing us to work in their area, but with due respect to the regent's offer, we are not sure if the parking center is a good place to make money," said Zainuddin, the spokesman for the Kuta Traders Association, which groups migrant traders.

Roadside vendors and hawkers mostly occupied Jl. Kartika Plaza, Jl. Bakungsari and areas nearby. Their regular customers are low-level employees of hotels and restaurants. A serving of bakso (meatball soup) costs only Rp 2,000 from the stalls, while a meal in a restaurant costs about Rp 11,000.

The hundreds of roadside traders on Jl. Kartika Plaza and Jl. Bakungsari make a lot of money. A bakso seller can earn about Rp 1.4 million in a month, and save up to Rp 500,000 of this.

"I can earn five times as much as I did in my home town," said Marijan, a bakso seller from Banyuwangi, East Java, who moved to Kuta six months ago. He lost his pushcart in last month's incident.

He plans to move to Nagara, about 30 kilometers west of Denpasar, but says he will return when Kuta returns to normal.

Those who fiercely refused the government's relocation plan are the hawkers.

"At the parking center, tourists come only to change cars and few will buy anything. Our main customers are tourists who sunbathe at the beach," said Tosim, a hawker from Madura, East Java.

But he said he would take the offer if there was no other choice.

Made Wendra, a Balinese customary village chief, said he deplored the incident but he also called for the migrants to better respect local customs. He said he could "understand" why the locals went on the rampage.

"They (migrants) sell their goods in front of the pura (temple) and in sidewalks and in narrow alleys," he said.

A Kuta resident who declined to be named said that many of the migrants were "arrogant". "Although they know that they block our way to the pura, they are angry when they are advised to find a better place."

Following last month's incident, customary villages in Kuta have been authorized to reorder their areas in place of Puskopad, the cooperative run by the local Udayana Regional Military Command, although its permit will not expire until 2009.

Kuta's indigenous residents organized night security patrols and stop strangers to search for weapons following rumors that the migrants want to take revenge for the attack.

Hawkers began to stream into Kuta in the 1970s when Kuta started to become popular with Western travelers.

The local and migrant hawkers' success stories lured more people from other islands to Kuta.

Some of the early hawkers have become very wealthy, and now own hotels, restaurants, galleries or museums in Bali. Anak Agung Rai, for example, owns Arma Museum, which has a wide collection of paintings by famous artists such as Afandi, Raden Saleh, Hendra Gunawan, Nyoman Gunarsa and the ancient Kamasan, paintings about Balinese puppetry.

Twenty years ago, Kuta boasted only a few hotels and migrant workers. "There was no problem between locals and migrants," Agung Rai recalled.

"Attacking others' property is unjustified, but migrants should understand that they must not insult local culture," he explained.

In the 1970s, Agung Rai walked around selling small statues and decorative paintings. Public transport was a major problem then and he would often spend the night in the local Banjar Blaluan village hall when he was too exhausted to walk home.

Now, hawkers are ubiquitous in tourists resorts like Sanur, Ubud, Kuta and Candidasa.

In Ubud, arrangements for traders are better than in Kuta. In Ubud, customary villages permit hawkers to do business only in places marked for them.

"Roadside vendors' stalls everywhere are often used by drunk youngsters to hang around. Unless they are provided with special space, they will disturb the peace," said a restaurant owner in Ubud.

The times have changed radically, and while their numbers are increasing, cultural sensitivity is becoming a problem.

"I know many of the gallery and hotel owners in Ubud were formerly hawkers like us," says Made Kembar, a hawker from Karangasem, Bali. "Who knows if we can be like them someday?"