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)