Public figures make the most of market fire

Public figures make the most of market fire

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Tanah Abang market turned into a venue for a public relations
campaign when a number of politicians and ministers visited the
vast textile market, which was still burning on Friday afternoon.

The first to visit was Minister of Industry and Trade Rini MS
Soewandi followed by Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, State Minister of
Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Alimarwan Hanan,
Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah, First Gentleman
Taufik Kiemas, Golkar Party executive Fahmi Idris and House of
Representatives member Azwir Dainy Tara.

Previously on Thursday, New Indonesia Party leader Sjahrir
also visited the market.

They all held talks with the traders, but offered them no
solutions to their plight. "We don't really need their visits.
What we need is a solution to our problems," Rizal, one of the
traders, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

During the talks, all the traders had one thing in mind:
refusing the Jakarta administration's plan to temporarily
relocate the owners of burned shops to a six-hectare plot of land
under the control of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency
near a dam in Kebon Melati. The site is 500 meters from the Tanah
Abang market.

The traders are demanding space in the parking lot of the
market's Block F and suggesting that the Kebon Melati plot be
used as parking space.

Rini said the government had no problem with such an
arrangement.

But Sutiyoso rejected their demand, saying that the parking
lot could not accommodate 2,000 traders.

Late on Friday afternoon, over 5,500 owners elected several
representatives to repeat their demand on Saturday to Sutiyoso.

Chairman of PT Payung Alam Semesta (PAS), Tanah Abang Trading
House, Irwan Husein, said both the Jakarta administration and
city market operator PD Pasar Jaya should not stop the traders
from resuming business as soon as possible.

He said that, as the largest supplier of textiles and apparel
to leading retailers such as Matahari and Ramayana, Tanah Abang
market's turnover amounted to a minimum of Rp 600 billion ($67.4
million) per day.

"Moreover, the temporarily closure of business would affect
businesses as far as Pekalongan in Central Java and Bandung in
West Java. It would mean leaving millions of people without
jobs," he told the Post and Antara.

He was referring to factory workers, tailors, kiosk employees,
forwarding business employees, as well as hundreds of market
middlemen.

Another kiosk owner, Umar, who ran a business at the market
for 42 years, deemed that the market had been neglected despite
the huge amount of revenue it generated for the administration
every year.

On Friday afternoon, 200 firefighters were still working at
site, but only 50 were wearing face masks that they received
earlier on Friday and fewer wore fireproof jackets.

Heavy rain and the unrelenting efforts of firefighters
apparently were not enough to put out the fire, which has been
burning for three days.