New fares introduced following driver protest
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
Mayor Abdillah of Medan, the North Sumatra capital, introduced new fares for public minivans on Thursday following a protest by hundreds of minivan drivers grouped under the Association of Medan Public Minivan Drivers/Owners (Kesper) earlier in the morning.
With the mayor's ruling, drivers can now charge Rp 1,100 (12 US cents) per passenger per route, up from the previous Rp 900. Meanwhile, the special fare for students remains unchanged at Rp 500 per passenger per route.
The new fares were announced by Medan's Administration Affairs Assistant Aslan Harahap to a delegation of protesting Kesper drivers at the municipality office.
The drivers' protest, which began at 7:30 a.m., left thousands of office employees and students stranded between Jl. Jamin Ginting and Jl. Pancing in Medan.
But the protest only lasted for one-and-a-half hours as it failed to win the support of the majority of public minivan drivers in Medan.
Most drivers, members of the Medan Public Minivan Cooperative (KPUM), were clearly opposed to Thursday's protest.
An executive with the KPUM, P. Samosir, said there were a lot of students still sitting their final examinations on Thursday.
"I also have kids. How would we feel, as parents, to see our children unable to sit their exams due to the minivans being off the road?" Samosir asked.
With police escorts, the KPUM drivers managed to serve the stranded passengers until 9 a.m.
Previously, a minor clash erupted in the morning between Kesper drivers, who insisted on going ahead with their protest, and KPUM drivers, who opposed the protest.
Officials of both drivers' organizations even traded blows at the municipality office prior to the meeting with Aslan Harahap. But, the clashes were quickly brought under control by the police.
Kesper chairman David Sitorus defended the protest as an expression of disappointment against the Medan municipality's failure to respond to the drivers' demands that it take action to deal with the increasing number of public minivans operating in the city, the overlapping of routes and the protection money demanded by the city's hoodlums.
He said the fare hike was not the solution to the drivers' demands, but rather they were seeking a reduction in the number of minivans operating in the city.
"There are a total of 15,000 public minivans operating in Medan, which is excessive if you consider that there are only 100 routes. Ideally, one route should be served by 80 minivans, but currently there are about 130 minivans serving each route," he said.
Aslan Harahap said the Medan municipality had agreed to the demand for a reduction in the number of minivans, saying that the Medan municipality, in cooperation with the Medan Land Transportation Agency, would review the licenses already issued to the minivan owners and conduct raids against the illegal operation of public minivans.
"In the future, we'll issue permits for new minivans on a more restrictive basis," he said, while indicating that nine new applications for public minivans had recently been received by the municipality.
Meanwhile, Medan Baru District Police Chief Adj. Comr. Wira told reporters that the police had arrested dozens of protesters, believed to be provocateurs during Thursday's protest.
"We're questioning them. If they are later proven not guilty, we'll release them," Wira said.