Organda ready to help 'bemo' vechicle owners
Organda ready to help 'bemo' vechicle owners
JAKARTA (JP): The organization of public transportation owners
is urging bemo (three-wheel vehicles) owners to use the
organization to settle their disputes and address their concerns.
The chairman of the organization, Aip Syarifuddin, said
yesterday that the owners need to discuss their worries about the
future of their bemo, which will soon be replaced by minivans.
"If they feel that the price of the minivans, the monthly
installments and the down payments are too high, they should
discuss it with us. We will help them negotiate with the vehicle
distributors," he said.
Aip said that the owners have the power to bargain with the
distributors to get lower prices. He also said that bemo owners
have the right to refuse to buy new vehicles to replace their
bemo.
On Thursday, on behalf of some 29 bemo drivers, the Jakarta
Legal Aid Institute submitted a judicial review to the Supreme
Court yesterday, expecting that it would end the protracted
dispute over phasing out the use of the three-wheeled motorized
public transport on the city's streets.
Representing the drivers, lawyer Hotma Timbul Hutapea told
reporters that conflicting decisions as well as regulations
underlie the bemo dispute.
In March, the city administration decided to replace more than
1,000 bemo operating in the city with other vehicles because they
were no longer considered appropriate as means of public
transportation.
Hotma cited a letter issued by the head of the Jakarta City
and Land Transportation Agency this year which said that bemo
were prohibited from operating in the Greater Jakarta vicinity
due to their old condition.
A government regulation issued in 1993, however, specifically
classified bemo as a mean of public transport.
"We hope that this judicial review sets an example of social
control in monitoring conflicting laws and regulations issued,"
Hotma said.
Crowding a conference room at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute,
drivers said they felt trapped in the game of city
administration's unclear procedures, such as handling documents,
down payments and monthly installments.
"We have been ping-ponged all over the place, and we end up
with no more clarity than where we started from," a driver who
requested anonymity said.
He was referring to the unclear amount of compensation, the
exorbitant prices of alternative vehicles and unrealistic monthly
installment plan.
There are three types of replacement vehicles that are being
offered, with down payments ranging from Rp 4 million to Rp 9
million and monthly installments between Rp 700,000 and Rp 2.9
million, all too high for bemo drivers to manage.
They said the vehicles could only be purchased from certain
dealers at the price of Rp 38.5 million. On the open market, they
added, these vehicles would probably cost half as much.
"Isn't it ironic, in this period when national policy is
aiming at producing cheaper cars, we, already powerless and poor,
are hard-pressed to pay for expensive vehicles," another added.
Drivers said that in general, they supported the bemo
eradication policy, but lamented the small compensation provided
by the administration for their submitted bemo.
They said it would not be too hard if they were to pay a total
of Rp 18 million with a 6 percent yearly interest rate for the
new vehicles. (yns/14)