Street vendors allowed to operate during Ramadhan

Street vendors allowed to operate during Ramadhan

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Street vendors can breath a sigh of relief this Ramadhan as the
city administration finally bowed to public pressure to
temporarily stop the crack down against traders during the
fasting month.

Head of the Jakarta Public Order Office Firman Hutajulu said
on Monday that he would not conduct raids on the vendors even
though they conducted their business on the streets and disturbed
traffic flow.

"They are illegal, but we will not conduct raids against them
because it's Ramadhan," Hutajulu told reporters at City Hall.

Last weekend, Governor Sutiyoso vowed to continue the crack
down on the street vendors in spite of the statement of Minister
of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea that street vendors
should be regulated and guided instead of being evicted.

Meanwhile the street vendors threatened to resist if the city
officers conducted raids against them during Ramadhan.

"We will fight against it with force, if we have to," said
Munawir, a street vendor in Jatinegara area, East Jakarta.

"I have a family to feed. Besides, I need money to celebrate
Idul Fitri," he said.

"I don't understand why the administration always treats us
like trash. We are vendors, not hoodlums."

Another street vendor in the area, Munawir, said he always
paid Rp 1,500 as a daily fee to a subdistrict officer.

Munawir has run his business in the area for over five years.
In the past couple of years, the administration had evicted them
several times, he said. However, the vendors always reerected
their temporary stalls soon after the eviction.

Separately, Tinus, who operates in Tanah Abang, said that
eviction was nothing new to street vendors. He said that he would
usually suspend his business activities when he heard about a
planned operation against street vendors, but would set up his
stall again after a few days.

Tinus, 28, who sells sport shoes off Jl. Fachrudin, near Tanah
Abang market, said he always paid a fee of Rp 2,000 to an officer
from Tanah Abang market.

"We are legal vendors although we don't rent a stall in the
market building," he claimed. "Being a street vendor is the only
thing we can do and I think it's better than being a hoodlum or a
thief."

Another street vendor in the Pasar Minggu area, South Jakarta,
shared the same view.

"We need a space. All this time, the administration has
evicted us without providing any solution," Medi told the Post,
on Jl. Pasar Minggu.

Medi usually earned up to Rp 50,000 a day, but his earnings
would double during Ramadhan.

"Does the administration expect us to become criminals?" he
said, questioning the Jakarta Public Order Office's policy on the
crack down against them.