Monas cafe owners seek return of levies

JAKARTA (JP): Owners of street cafes located in National Monument (Monas) Park in Central Jakarta which were looted and damaged by security guards last week want the site operator to return their levies and security fees immediately.

In a meeting with local officials on Tuesday, the 50 cafe owners, mostly local television and movie stars, said that the amount of money they paid daily to site manager Amijaya reached some Rp 300 million.

Actor Mark Sungkar, representing the cafe owners, said Amijaya collected levies worth 15 percent of each of the owners daily income and another Rp 5,000 as a security fee every day since the cafes opened for business on Aug. 22 of last year.

"Where is the money now? It should be returned to the cooperative," Mark said, referring to the Indonesian Artists Cooperative which set up the Monas park cafes.

Amijaya, who is also the cooperative chairman, was seen among the cafe owners before the meeting in the Central Jakarta mayoralty office began, but he departed before the meeting started.

His disappearance angered the cafe owners.

"We also want to meet Amijaya to question him about the money. We really regret that he left the meeting," Mark, a member of the cooperative, said.

At least 150 out of the 170 cafes in the park were looted and damaged by the site's security guards on Jan. 18. The guards were incensed that their demands for their monthly salaries and Idul Fitri bonuses were rejected by Amijaya.

A week later, police apprehended one of the security guards, identified as Freddy.

According to Mark, who himself runs two cafes in the park, the cooperative members have decided to fire Amijaya from his post in the body and appoint deputy chairman Lim Kam Pai to temporarily replace him.

In response to the cafe owners' decision, Central Jakarta Deputy Mayor Cholid Ismail Balau said the city administration would not interfere, suggesting that the artists solve the internal problem on their own.

However, he stated that the mayoralty had taken over the management of the Monas cafes.

"We hope the cafes will resume operations in two weeks," Ismail said.

He said the mayoralty also decided to cut the number of cafes down to 100 because many of the establishments had not yet begun operations.

"In the future, if the cafes run well, we'll hand over the management of the businesses to another company," he said. (jun)