No special action against hoodlums

JAKARTA (JP): Acting Jakarta governor Abdul Kahfi said on Thursday the city was not carrying out a special operation against hoodlums.

The city administration is performing a standard public order operation, he stated.

"There is no such gubernatorial decree on an operation against hoodlums," Kahfi, who is deputy governor for administrative affairs, said.

He said the administration would continue to concentrate its operation against street vendors operating on sidewalks and disturbing public order.

Any operation against hoodlums, known as preman, will be led by the city police, he said.

"So what we are doing is not a special operation. It is the same operation we have been carrying out," Kahfi reiterated.

He said the public order operation, which began on Monday and will last until December, would focus on street traders and the hoodlums believed to back the traders.

He said Rp 30 billion (US$3 million) had been allocated from the 2001 city budget for the public order operation.

At least 2,800 public order officers, including 1,900 newly installed civilian police auxiliaries, will take part in the operation.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman said earlier the police would deploy 800 officers to assist public order officers during the operation.

The city administration has proposed that officers taking part in the operation receive between Rp 15,000 and Rp 25,000 a day, meaning that the nine-month operation will cost between Rp 12 billion and Rp 24 billion.

Kahfi said that during a meeting of city officials on Thursday, it had been decided the officers would be paid Rp 15,000 a day.

"It is the same amount they received in an earlier operation in January," he added.

Responding to criticism from city councillors that it would be difficult to control the spending for the operation, Kahfi said there were several parties capable of controlling spending.

"The City Council, the city inspectorate and the public, including the press, can control the use of the funds," he remarked.

He questioned the councillors' criticism since the Rp 30 billion for the public order operation was approved by the council.

Councillor Posman Siahaan of the Justice and Unity Party wondered if the mechanisms were in place to control the costs of the operation.

"How can we know that on a certain day a certain number of officers are deployed for certain operations and spend a certain amount of money," Posman asked.

He also said the operation should not focus on people who have little money and are simply trying to earn enough money to survive.

"I would agree if the operation was conducted against hoodlums who are rich and are still extorting money," he said.

Hundreds of street vendors, mostly Madurese, operating around the National Monument park were involved in clashes with public order officers on Wednesday.

At least eight people, both vendors and officers, were injured and five vendors arrested.

Central Jakarta secretary Effendy Rustam said on Thursday the vendors already had been tried and fined between Rp 10,000 and Rp 50,000.

"If they reopen their businesses in the park we will arrest them again and again," he said following the meeting on Thursday. (jun)