Mayor asked to restore order to Melawai area

JAKARTA (JP): City councillors from Commission B on economic affairs have urged the South Jakarta mayoralty and the city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya to make serious efforts to restore order at the popular Plaza Melawai market compound which has been thronged by hundreds of street traders.

After leading the commission members on a visit to the area on Tuesday, the commission chairman Syarief Zulkarnain said that they had received complaints from representatives of the some 200 traders running their businesses inside the building.

The traders, he said, were unhappy with the presence of the street vendors as the latter only created disorder in the shopping area which, in turn, has badly affected their businesses.

For years, hundreds of vendors have occupied many of the public facilities in the vicinity of the market and its compound, such as the streets, parking lot, sidewalks and the veranda of the market building.

The traders at Plaza Melawai sell, among other things, gold jewelry, watches, clothes, garments, and toys, while their counterparts outside offer a wide range of goods, including purses, belts and handbags -- all bearing fake brandnames -- traditional cakes and drinks.

Some of the wristwatches offered by the established traders inside the market are also counterfeit big name brands.

Plaza Melawai is located in the popular Blok M shopping center complex, adjacent to the Pasaraya center and Blok M mall.

Due to the presence of the street traders and the lack of law enforcement on the part of the South Jakarta mayoralty, visitors have to struggle through the crowd of vendors in order to move from one building to another.

"In the short-term, the mayoralty has to relocate their makeshift kiosks to other areas of the complex which are not so busy," councillor Syarief said after the visit.

South Jakarta Mayor Abdul Mufti was not among the councillors during the official trip. He was represented by members of his staff.

Syarief said the commission deplored the mayoralty's failure to provide the street traders with an alternative solution.

He also reminded the mayoralty staff that they would face serious problems later in clearing the streets of the traders as officials from PD Pasar Jaya have been collecting fees from them.

"The street traders feel that they have a right to do business in the area because the market operator has been collecting fees from them," he said, adding that such practice is against Law number 18/97 on regional taxes and levies, which bans the collection of fees from small traders.

The councillor also called on PD Pasar Jaya to further improve its services to registered traders inside the building by repairing the air conditioning system and 10 elevators, which have been out of order for the past eight years. (06)