Mayors postpone crackdown on street vendors

Mayors postpone crackdown on street vendors

JAKARTA (JP): To safeguard against possible attacks on City
Public Order officials, Jakarta's five mayors have decided to
leave street vendors out of a cleanup operation of the capital.

Interviewed separately, the mayors insisted, however, that
stern action be taken against beggars, illegal traffic wardens,
becak (pedicab) drivers, street corner car washers and street
musicians.

"We'll take care of the vendors later on. Right now, we're
focusing on beggars, pedicab drivers, street corner car cleaners
and street musicians," West Jakarta Mayor Sarimun Hadisaputra
said after a meeting at City Hall on Jakarta's Development Agenda
for the 21st century.

"West Jakarta mayoralty officials are asking the vendors not
to do business on the street," he said.

Chinatown in Glodok, West Jakarta, was the site of mass unrest
last May when officers of the National Police Headquarters raided
traders of pirated video compact discs (VCDs) in the area.

South Jakarta mayor Abdul Mufti said his mayoralty had been
conducting the operation since Thursday.

"We are targeting street people in the areas of the CSW,
Kuningan and Pancoran flyovers and on Jl. Trunojoyo," he said.

North Jakarta Mayor Soebagio acknowledged that he had more
problems with increasing prostitution than with street vendors or
other people on the street.

"I have to admit that there are still prostitutes working at
Kramat Tunggak red-light district which was closed last December.
They play hide-and-seek with the North Jakarta Public Order
officials," he said.

Kramat Tunggak was the only red-light district ever officially
opened by city administration. Jakarta, however, has several
illegal red-light districts, mainly in North Jakarta, such as in
Kali Jodo and Rawa Malang.

"We can't close these areas because we've never opened them.
It's definitely against regulations. We'll demolish the Rawa
Malang bordellos in September or November. Give me time to
prepare for it," Soebagio said.

"For the Kali Jodo bordellos, we have to coordinate with the
City Public Works Agency to improve the area prior to closing
it," he added.

Local residents have filed complaints with city council and
have threatened to burn the districts if the city administration
did nothing to stop the prostitution.

A different priority, however, was set by East Jakarta Mayor
Andi Mappaganty.

"Currently, we're concentrating on stopping the people washing
cars along Jl. Ahmad Yani, Jl. D.I. Panjaitan and Jl. Ngurah
Rai," he said.

"The water used by the street car washers floods the streets
and it erodes the asphalt layers as well," he said.

Meanwhile, the Central Jakarta mayoralty was registering
street vendors at Pasar Senen market complex.

"The mayoralty is registering street vendors along the streets
at Pasar Senen market and will make them move their makeshift
kiosks to the sidewalk," the administration assistant to the
Central Jakarta secretary, Agus Salim Utud, said.

"We'll focus on this effort in the next two or three days," he
added.

Agus said the mayoralty delayed taking any stern action to
avoid unrest in the area.

Street vendors, however, expressed skepticism of whether city
officials would succeed in restoring order to the area as many
were reluctant to move their kiosks to the sidewalk.

"We consider the sidewalk on the other part of Senen market to
be less profitable," Maringin Pakpahan, a trader, said.

Buskers

Separately, around 50 buskers urged the City Council to let
them work the streets and earn a living amidst a mounting
official crackdown aimed at restoring order in the city.

"We only want to sing. We don't want to cause trouble," 23-
years-old Adji Kusuma, one of the street singers, told Commission
E on public welfare.

The administration launched a massive crackdown on Thursday to
round up prostitutes, street children, vendors, beggars and
buskers so as to clean up the capital's streets in the run up to
next month's session of the People's Consultative Assembly.

"We are deeply disappointed with (Governor) Sutiyoso's plan
because he treats us as trash and the source of disorderliness,"
Adji said.

Sugi, 20, said Sutiyoso and the public should distinguish
between criminals and street singers.

"Because of street criminals, people are avoiding us fearing
that we might harm them," Sugi said, adding that it was actually
buskers who were often the ones to help victims of street crime.

The protesters, mostly in their teens, marched four kilometers
from Jl. Matraman, East Jakarta, to the Council building on Jl.
Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta.

Adji said he had heard that many street singers in Blok M,
South Jakarta, who were rounded up since the crackdown began last
week, had been sent to a rehabilitation center in Kedoya, West
Jakarta.

He described the center as notorious, recalling the time he
and his friends' had spent there in the past.

"I was beaten," he said.

"We were forced to clean public toilets and dig up fields," he
recalled.

"That wasn't all. They (officers) took the money which we had
earned that day and our guitars, and only released us two months
later," Sugi said.

Sugi explained that many street singers needed the money to
pay for their schooling and to improve their standard of living.

The rehabilitation program, he said, was not helping them at
all.

Edy Suchro Abdul Djalal, Commission E chairman, promised the
street singers to take up the matter with the administration.

Councillor Lambertus Gaina Dara of the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI-Perjuangan) said he would question the
City's Social Services Agency about its handling of street
children. (06/nvn)