Leave vendors alone: Minister

Antara, Jakarta

Minister of Manpower Jacob Nuwa Wea asked Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso on Thursday to stop cracking down on street vendors on the pretext of keeping the city beautiful, arguing that 65 percent of the country's labor force was employed in the informal sector.

"Pak Sutiyoso should no longer crack down on small-scale traders for the sake of the city's beauty. Now is not the proper time to do that," Jacob said, referring to the raids held ahead of the Ramadhan fasting month.

"I see how sad the evicted people are," he said.

The minister also criticized the city administration for the recent eviction of slum residents and those in the informal sectors.

He said that what the city administration had to do was regulate the street vendors, instead of raiding them.

Jacob believed that the vendors could be easily regulated if the city administration was consistent with its policies.

What had happened so far, he said, was that irresponsible city officers had collected fees from traders and later cracked down on them. He suspected that the money had gone into the pockets of certain officials.

"This situation makes people wonder, why they are (sometimes) allowed to run their business, while (at other times) they are cracked down on."

The city administration should regulate and guide the vendors, otherwise the unemployment level, which now stood at 36 million, would increase, he said. He called on the administration to create a conducive atmosphere for the vendors to run their businesses and to facilitate the development of informal sectors.