Street vendors helpless against extortion by thugs

Street vendors helpless against extortion by thugs

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"After last month's fire, business here is not going very
well. But I still have to pay a large proportion of my profits to
thugs," said Hardi, 42, not his real name, a street vendor at the
Tanah Abang market, Central Jakarta.

He said on Tuesday that every day he had to pay around Rp
8,500 (US$1) in "security" fees to five different gangs operating
in the market.

Such extortion is just one example of the extent to which
thuggery has encroached on the lives of street vendors in the
city and has added to the problems they already experience.

"The extortion is very burdensome for me these days, because
after a fire ravaged the market last month, I make a profit of
only about Rp 20,000 per day. This means that I have to give away
almost half of my profits to thugs," he told The Jakarta Post.

During weekends, when more visitors came to the market, the
thugs would extort more from street vendors, Hardi said.

"We also have to pay more during holidays such as Idul Fitri
and Idul Adha, when buyers throng the market," he said.

He added that during peak seasons, a street vendor might have
to pay as much as Rp 10,000 per gang per day.

A fellow trader, Wawan, 40, also not his real name, said that
thugs did not care about the fact that street vendors were facing
hard times at present.

"They still demand the same amount of money, although they
know that business hasn't been good.

"If the amount of money we pay is less than it was the
previous day, they throw our merchandise into the street. We can
hardly bargain with crooks like that," Wawan said.

Although the levies were imposed under the guise of "security"
services, Wawan said that in reality, only insecurity prevailed
at the market.

"How can the thugs say that they provide us with security,
when some of them even extort money from visitors?

"There are also rampant cases of robbery and theft in the
market," he said, adding that such conditions were driving
visitors away.

In Tanah Abang, a business district known for the notoriety of
its thugs, reportedly there are five gangs that impose different
levies on traders, each claiming that it "rules" a certain part
of the area. Recruitment of gang members in the area is based on
their ethnic background.

Hardi, who sells apparel from a makeshift tent, bemoaned the
fact that street vendors in the market were treated more like
servants of the thugs.

"We are doing business, only to have someone else take our
hard-earned profits, but we can do nothing about it," he said.

Hardi added that he and his fellow traders in the market had
reached the point where they were desperate about dealing with
the ubiquitous thugs.

"Even the police don't seem to be serious in dealing with
them. Past experience has shown us that a thug who was caught
red-handedly extorting vendors was released minutes after his
friends bailed him out," he said.

Separately, a criminologist from the University of Indonesia,
Adrianus Meliala, said that widespread thuggery was a result of
an inability on the part of the government to provide security
for its citizens.

"Thugs then take on the role of providing security services,
which are, of course, not free," Adrianus told the Post.

Over time, as the demand for security rose, thuggery grew
strong and became uncontrollable; it was at that point that the
public then voiced its concerns, he said.