People with social problems sent home

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration sent home on Tuesday 50 beggars, street singers, street vendors, squatters and thugs to their respective villages as part of the administration's efforts to bring order to the city.

The people were arrested by city public order officers last month in a series of raids on people who the government terms as "people with social and community problems" (PMKS). Upon arrest, they were housed at the social rehabilitation center in Kedoya, West Jakarta.

Clad in a light blue uniform, the people -- 48 men and two women -- were taken to the Central Jakarta mayor's office on Tuesday at 2:45 p.m. in five paddy wagons, before being sent home to their villages in Central and West Java by economy bus.

One of the men, Syafrizal, came to Jakarta two years ago from Pekalongan, Central Java. He decided to live in the capital to earn a living as he had no skills and no prospects of work in his village. However, he failed to find a job here and ended up becoming a street singer.

"I've learned my lesson here in the city, especially when I was detained at the rehab center," he said, referring to his 23 days at the Kedoya center.

"It was like a jail as we were held with 10 other people in a room with bars," he added.

He said he was relieved to find that the center treated the "detainees" well enough as it fed them three times a day. They were also told it was necessary to have a skill to enable them to survive in the city.

However, Syahrizal admitted to The Jakarta Post that if he got bored in his village, he might return to Jakarta to try his luck again.

Raids against PMKS have long been part of the administration's policy to restore order to the city. Amid criticism from activists that the operations were often marred by violence and were against human rights, the program has been expanded to include the controversial ID card raids.

Syahrizal and other people who were returning home were seen off by Sylviana Murni, the head of the City Population Agency, and Central Jakarta Mayor Petra Lumbun as well as several other municipal high-ranking officials.

Sylviana said they were arrested for not having ID cards or proper jobs. Moreover, their existence here made other people in the capital uncomfortable.

"This is a part of our attempts to turn our city into a clean and conducive place for living. Their existence is just a burden to this city as they have no skills, they are uneducated and without proper jobs," said Sylviana.

Petra denied that the administration had violated their right to the freedom to live and work in Jakarta.