Street sweeper plan gets cold response

Street sweeper plan gets cold response

JAKARTA (JP): Many street children and unofficial traffic
attendants rejected on Friday the idea of working as street
sweepers for the city administration.

Interviewed separately at Tanah Abang and Petamburan in
Central Jakarta, the street children and traffic attendants,
known locally as pak ogah, said if they became street sweepers
they would earn lower wages and have their freedom restricted.

"Why should we give up jobs which give us more money? And
(with these jobs) we are our own bosses, without anyone else
telling us what to do," one of the unofficial traffic attendants
working in Tanah Abang, Robby, said.

He said he could earn between Rp 9,000 and Rp 15,000 a day
directing traffic, while as a street sweeper he would only make
Rp 7,700 a day.

Robby, who lost his job at state-owned electricity company PLN
last year, said he could not earn enough to feed his wife and son
working as a street sweeper.

However, he said city officials had not yet informed him about
the plan.

Similar comments were also made by Adil, a street child in
Petamburan.

"I am afraid the administration will be strict in imposing
working hours. I'm against that because I still have to go to
school in the morning," the student at state-run SLTP 08 junior
high school in Central Jakarta said.

The administration announced on Thursday plans to recruit
1,000 pak ogah, street children and beggars to work as street
sweepers under the city social welfare agency to help them
survive the economic crisis.

Assistant city secretary for public administration affairs
Tursandi Alwi said on Thursday the plan came about because the
city sanitary agency needed more street sweepers.

He said the plan did not have a political agenda and the
recruited street sweepers would not be mobilized for certain
political interests.

The number of street children, beggars and pak ogah has
increased significantly since 1997, when the economic crisis
first hit the country.

There is no exact data, but the number of pak ogah in the city
is estimated at 1,300, according to information from the city's
five mayoralties.

Pak ogah, who usually work at busy U-turns or junctions which
do not have traffic lights, have only recently appeared in the
city. Most of those working as pak ogah are people who lost their
jobs during the crisis.

Motorists have frequently complained about the pak ogah,
saying they are sometimes forced to pay for their services.

Another pak ogah, Ading, said he would chase any city official
away who came to offer him a job as a street sweeper.

"I don't want to be watched over by them," he said. (ind)