Pasar Minggu traders protest gate closure
Pasar Minggu traders protest gate closure
JAKARTA (JP): Small-scale traders at the Pasar Minggu marketplace protested yesterday at the authorities's decision to close the west entrance because they say it hurts business.
Five persons representing 500 traders complained to the City Council over the decision by PD Pasar Jaya, which manages the market.
The traders said turnover has plunged by as much as 50 percent since the western gate was closed recently, a move that left shoppers with only one access -- through the front gate in the east.
"Now shoppers rarely come to our kiosks because they are too far from the main entrance. Most people simply shop at kiosks in the front section," Jalaludin, the spokesman for the delegation, told the city council's Commission B, which is in charge of economic affairs.
He used his own garment business to illustrate his point, saying that he now earns less than Rp 50,000 a day compared to Rp 100,000 before the closure.
The west gate previously provided access chiefly for shoppers getting off of buses from Depok.
"Now, they have to go through the front gate and automatically shop at the kiosks in that section because ours are too far from the main entrance," said Jalaludin, who has been trading in the area since the 1960s.
Jalaludin and his four colleagues said they were representing 500 traders located on the first floor of the Pasar Minggu marketplace. Most of them sell ready-to-wear clothes.
They said that PD Pasar Jaya closed the western gate to stop sidewalk vendors from overflowing into the market and to encourage them to settle in the parking lot.
Rather than close the gate altogether, "We have asked PD Pasar Jaya to build an iron gate which provides access to one person at a time," Jalaludin added.
PD Pasar Jaya had not responded to the proposal up to yesterday, he said explaining the reason why they had turned to the City Council for help.
"We will go bankrupt if the gate remains closed because we simply cannot compete with the other stores which are closer to the main gate," Jalaludin said.
With the upcoming shopping boom ahead of Idul Fitri just around the corner, the traders have a strong reason to feel distressed by the closed gate policy.
Jalaludin said the policy benefits mostly garment traders on the ground floor, who are their main competitors. "We are afraid that we might be forced to close shop."
Council member M. Chaniago promised that the commission will raise the matter with PD Pasar Jaya. (yns)