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)