No-gift policy hits parcel business hard
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Parcel vendors who for years enjoyed a thriving business are feeling the heat of a new political reality that frowns on the giving and receiving of holiday gifts.
Dozens of parcel vendors from Greater Jakarta staged a protest on Tuesday at the House of Representatives and the office of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), to demand that the KPK retract an earlier statement calling for state officials to treat holiday gifts as bribes.
"That statement has killed our business," said Boil, who runs a parcel business on Jl. Haji Samali in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.
He said that in past years his shop had sold 40 percent of its prepared parcels 10 days before Idul Fitri, which this year falls on Nov. 14. "So far this year we have not sold a single parcel."
In response to the vendors' demand, a group of House legislators said they would ask the KPK to soften its stance on holiday gifts.
"We will do our best to help find a solution to the problem facing these vendors, hopefully within 24 hours," said Khofifah Indar Parawansa, a member of House Commission VI for industry and trade.
KPK chairman Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas last week asked President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who during the election campaign portrayed himself as the anticorruption candidate, to prohibit state officials from receiving gifts in connection with their positions.
He said those officials who had already accepted Idul Fitri gifts should donate them to the needy.
Gift parcels also are given at Christmas and other major holidays, usually by subordinates to their superiors, a custom that can be traced back to the kingdom era of the country when vassals paid tribute to their king in return for certain privileges.
Another parcel vendor, Oding, said his shop had a customer from a state enterprise cancel an order for about 1,000 packages.
The vendors said customers from banks, private companies and state enterprises were the backbone of their business, comprising as much as 60 percent of total orders.
The traders said they had already invested from Rp 30 million (US$3,260) up to billions of rupiah to prepare their Idul Fitri parcels.
Gift packages containing food sell for about Rp 500,000, while parcels containing ceramic or glassware can cost up to Rp 6 million.
There does seem to be one positive outcome of this new aversion to gift parcels: It has brought together for the first time vendors from Cikini and Manggarai in Central Jakarta, and Tebet, Cilandak, Pondok Indah and Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta.
"Because of this we now know each other. We will form an association next year," one of the vendors, Irwan, said. Photo on Page 8