Street vendors ask for recognition

JAKARTA: At least 200 street vendors staged protest on Wednesday outside City Hall and the Vice Presidential office, demanding that the government recognize them as micro entrepreneurs and to stop evicting them from the streets.

"We could not meet with either Governor Sutiyoso or Vice President Jusuf Kalla. We just met with officials from the city's public order agency who insist that our presence (on the streets) was against the law," said the group's head M. Muhdi.

Muhdi referred to Bylaw No. 11/1988 on public order that forbids street vendors from conducting business on sidewalks.

"In that case, we will set up in some shopping centers in Jakarta," he added.

Bylaw No. 2/2002 on city markets stipulates that big shopping centers have to allot some 20 percent of their space to street vendors.

Currently, the city administration continues to evict street vendors but only a few of them can be relocated. -- Antara