Pasar Jaya urged to fill markets, stop illegal vendors

JAKARTA (JP): Councilors urged the city-owned PD Pasar Jaya market company yesterday to maximize the capacity of its 152 markets to stop the mushrooming number of street traders here.

The lackadaisical approach toward filling off-street markets has allowed an estimated 155,000 traders to illegally set up shop around the markets.

The presence of illegal kiosks has become a chronic problem in the city.

"Many market buildings have been abandoned because traders choose the sidewalks and streets as their trading places. And the officials (of Pasar Jaya) have not done much to encourage the traders to occupy their kiosks," councilor Nasrul Armans of Commission B for economic affairs said.

Nasrul said the trading sites owned and managed by Pasar Jaya already have a special area set aside for sidewalk traders.

"As the market is empty, traders then open their makeshift kiosks outside the market, where the buyers can be more easily reached."

The presence of traders outside the market has generated other problems, such as heavy traffic congestion, the collection of illegal levies by city officials and hoodlums, and crime, which all give Jakarta a bad name.

And the city has allocated billions toward rectifying the problems.

"It's, therefore, a waste of money to build such markets, if they are to be left empty," Nasrul said.

"The traders must be ordered to operate within the market," he said, urging Pasar Jaya to improve its management and services for the traders.

The illegal levies imposed daily on sidewalk vendors, for example, should be stopped, he said.

Nasrul said the company should also review its rental fees to encourage traders to move into the buildings.

The current "crazy" price, which ranges between Rp 500,000 and Rp 1 million per month, is too high for traders, he said.

Soeparmo, head of Commission E for welfare affairs, urged Pasar Jaya to take stern action against the vendors.

"It's part of a learning process. People who dare to live in Jakarta must be taught certain things, such as obeying the rules," he said.

According to Pasar Jaya spokesman Lihardin Sipayung, about half of the company's market buildings are inundated with illegal street kiosks.

A total of 30,000 street traders have even blocked the markets' entrances, he said.

"We are having difficulties disciplining them because, due to the sidewalk vendors existence, the traders who stay inside the market eventually lose their buyers and follow the sidewalk vendors outside."

Councilor Soeparmo said the vendors were hard to control because they have no allegiance to Jakarta.

"For instance, local vendors in Padang (West Sumatra) or Yogyakarta are very obedient and follow rules because its their home."

Soeparmo said vendors in Jakarta cared little about rules and regulations as they were primarily interested in getting as much money as possible.

The tough competition among street traders would become more fierce during holiday seasons, such as Idul Fitri, when business is more promising, he said. (07)