Street children, beggars to be employed as sweepers

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration plans to recruit 1,000 street children, beggars and unofficial civilian traffic attendants known locally as Pak Ogah to work as street sweepers, an official said on Thursday.

City Secretary Fauzi Bowo said the scheme was designed to help the individuals endure the economic crisis.

"This is a good chance. I hope that all mayors in the city can use this great chance to its fullest advantage," Fauzi was quoted as saying by his assistant for public administration affairs, Tursandi Alwi.

According to Tursandi, each of the five mayoralties will recruit 200 people onto the scheme, which will start as soon as possible.

He said that people employed under the scheme would be hired as daily workers by the city sanitary agency and receive a daily wage equivalent to Rp 231,000 a month, the city's official minimum wage.

Tursandi insisted that the recruitment of street children, beggars and Pak Ogah had nothing to do with the upcoming general election, for which campaigning to start on May 19.

Many city residents fear a repetition of last May's violence if campaigning for the June 7 general election gets out of hand. Last May, hundreds died and thousands of properties were damaged during three days of rioting in the capital.

However, Tursandi said he could guarantee that no political agenda lay behind the scheme, which is the first of its kind undertaken by the city administration.

"It's designed to help mitigate the social problems caused by these people," Tursandi said, pointing out that motorists frequently complained of Pak Ogah forcing them to pay for their services.

Pak Ogah appoint themselves to manage traffic at U-turns or junctions that have no traffic lights.

Data from the city's five mayoralties revealed that at least 1,300 Pak Ogah are now operating in the city.

In another related development on Thursday, the head of the city-owned market management firm PD Pasar Jaya, Sjahrir Tanjung, said his office had reserved scores of trucks to help transport foodstuffs during the campaign period.

Sjahrir said he feared that trucks normally employed for the task might not be available if hired by political parties to assist in street campaigns. Trucks are a favored means of transport in street rallies.

"Every day we need hundreds of trucks to transport foodstuffs from Kramat Jati market in East Jakarta to smaller markets in and around the capital," he said.

He said the backup trucks would be provided by the city administration, but gave no further details. However, data from the city supplies office shows that the administration owns only four trucks.

The trucks normally used to transport foodstuffs from Kramat Jati to markets throughout the capital belong to a number of private individuals and firms. (ind)