Public order office crushes 750 'becak'
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration crushed on Thursday 750 becak (three-wheeled pedicabs) that they had seized this year.
Witnessed by deputy governor for administrative affairs Abdul Kahfi, the becak, which had been seized in raids starting in January, were destroyed in a yard of the warehouse of the City Security and Public Order Office in Cakung, Cilincing, North Jakarta.
The becak were destroyed using an excavator.
An official said the becak would be dumped into the sea around the Seribu Islands to form an artificial reef, as the administration had done in previous years.
Kahfi pledged that all the becak in the city, which currently number about 7,000, would be gone by the end of the year.
"On the eve of new year 2002, Jakartans will no longer see becak here," Kahfi told reporters.
He urged public order officers in the five mayoralties to continue raids against becak until they were all gone from the city.
He insisted that becak were banned from the city as stipulated by Bylaw No. 11/1988 on public order.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 becak drivers staged a rally outside the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) headquarters on Jl. Pecenongan, Central Jakarta, on Thursday, protesting the crackdowns on becak.
They asked the party to ask the city administration to stop the current becak raids.
Maringan Pangaribuan, deputy chairman of the PDI Perjuangan faction in the city council, and Tarmidi Suhardjo, the council's deputy head, promised to help them.
"I will ask Governor Sutiyoso to suspend the becak raids," Maringan told the protesters.
Jukimin Suseno, leader of the Daya Manunggal becak driver union, complained that the administration had continued to raid becak aggressively over the past three days.
"Who would want to be a becak driver? We do it because we need money to get food. The administration should understand this and stop their 'inhumane action' against us," he told The Jakarta Post.
He noted that on Wednesday night, officers of the security and public order office took a dozen becak from the Pulomas area in East Jakarta, although, they were in a garage.
Last week, hundreds of becak drivers held a demonstration at the PDI Perjuangan headquarters over a similar issue.
At that time, Agnita Singedekane and Jacobus, members of the party's central board, promised to contact Sutiyoso and the city council and asked them to suspend the becak raids.
A day earlier, a becak raid triggered a riot in the Roxy area of Central Jakarta that claimed the life of one civilian guard. (04/jun)