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)