Put off traffic sticker plan: PPP legislator

JAKARTA (JP): The United Development Party (PPP) urged the city administration yesterday to shelve its controversial traffic sticker project until the economic crisis is over.

Hamzah Haz, a PPP deputy chief, said the project scheduled to begin trials in August was inappropriate when the people had to bear the brunt of the deepening economic crisis.

Hamzah, who heads the PPP faction in the House of Representatives, said pressing ahead with the plan would merely exacerbate the public's problems.

"I would say that it would be best to delay all plans which would only add to the burden the people have to shoulder during this economic crisis," he said.

If implemented, traffic stickers would replace the three-in- one system, generally judged unsuccessful in easing the city's severe traffic problem.

The current system requires that any private vehicle entering designated restricted zones at certain hours in the morning carry at least three people.

Under the new system, private vehicles would have to bear stickers on their windshields to enter the restricted zones -- Jl. M.H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta, Jl. Sudirman and part of Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta -- between 7:30 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

President Soeharto issued a decree which principally endorses the plan.

Critics have included the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI), which says the plan, if implemented, would discriminate against the poor, who also pay taxes for construction of roads.

The administration has yet to officially announce the proposed prices of stickers. Media reports say the price of a single entry sticker will be around Rp 5,000.

Trials of the system are scheduled from August to November.

Hamzah said Governor Sutiyoso's argument supporting the system was based on the assumption it would only affect the affluent, but he said the social consequences were more complex.

"The problem is that it is not only rich people who will pass through the zones. Common people will also use the same roads, so they will also be affected by the system," he said after a closed meeting with Sutiyoso and PPP chief Ismail Hasan Metareum at City Hall.

"Consequently, the sticker price must be set at a reasonable price," Hamzah said without elaborating.

He proposed that the administration should buy more public buses before the sticker system was implemented to allow people without vehicles to travel in the restricted zones.

"The buses should be ready before the sticker system is applied," he said.

He advised members of the public to relay their opinions about the plan to the City Council. "If people have objections or input on the plan, tell the councilors."

Hamzah urged the administration to discuss its sticker plan with the councilors so that the people's interests could be accommodated.

Amarullah Asbah, the head of Commission C for financial affairs, said the council had never been consulted on details of the plan.

"We haven't received the draft of the city bylaw on the plan. I cannot comment or explain to you anything about it because I don't know much about it, either," Asbah said. (cst)