'Sogo Jongkok' traders want businesses back

JAKARTA: Some 400 street vendors called for the City Council to allow them to reopen their businesses along Jl. Fachruddin, near Tanah Abang on Sundays and public holidays.

Hasan, 45, one of the traders of "Sogo Jongkok", or "squatting Sogo", where the sellers sit on the ground and buyers have to squat to examine the merchandise, said the authorities had evicted them from their spot on Sunday. Sogo is the name of a Japanese retail chain.

"We only trade with buyers who shop on weekend holidays and we do not cause traffic jams because there are many alternative roads (motorists can take) there. I hope councillors will allow us to occupy our workplace again," Hasan said.

"We also do not disrupt the work of offices there because they are also closed during holidays," he said. -- JP