Sutiyoso: A nightmare to 'becak' drivers

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): For thousands of becak (pedicab) drivers, Governor Sutiyoso may be the man they hate most on the face of the earth. For good reason.

His verbal promise on June 24 to welcome pedicabs back onto the capital's streets was like fresh water in the Sahara desert for the poor men and their families.

Unfortunately, their hopes were dashed just six days later when the same person, Sutiyoso, backtracked on his statement and insisted that the capital has no space for becak.

Sutiyoso, a two-star military general and former Jakarta Military Commander, might have no conception of the pains of the pedicab drivers who struggled to reach Jakarta on the strength of his word.

He might have also been unaware of the fact that most of the drivers have to sleep in their pedicabs because they have no family and no places to stay in Jakarta.

According to Jida from Pemalang in Central Java, he borrowed Rp 50,000 from his neighbors four days after Sutiyoso extended his "kindhearted" invitation.

The 50 year old man packed some of his clothes, hugged his wife and three children, then lifted his becak up onto the waiting truck.

Happy at the prospect of earning money in Jakarta, Jida did not mind spending half of the money he borrowed to pay for the truck to drive him and his pedicab to Jakarta, 400 kilometers to the west.

The strong wind on the back of the truck and the dull sound from his hungry stomach helped him to forget his wife's worries.

After a nine hours journey, Jida finally arrived in Jakarta.

He felt proud of himself after a few days here because he could earn Rp 15,000 a day and was already beginning to ease his family's financial problems.

If he was to earn Rp 5,000 in a day in Pemalang he would consider it his luckiest day of the year.

Jida then wrote a letter to his family telling them that their life would be better from now on.

But his happiness did not last long after his colleagues told him that the governor had revoked his own decision and the city would be cleansed of pedicabs by the end of this month.

"I don't know how to tell my wife that Governor Sutiyoso has changed his mind and we are forbidden to operate here.

"What will she say. I have repeatedly told her that our life would be better if I brought my becak here," Jida told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Mobile home

He also doubted whether he could repay his debt to his neighbor.

Like some of his fellow drivers, Jida has made his pedicab his home in Jakarta.

Thanks to a plastic shield on the pedicab, Jida can shield himself from rain and cold weather at night.

Many other drivers tell similar stories.

Carmo, 47, said that he had forced a truck driver to transport him to Jakarta for Rp 25,000.

"My wife supported my decision because I could no longer work as a farmer in my hometown. Tractors and other machines now do the job I used to get paid for," he said.

Carmo said he decided to bring his becak here after Sutiyoso's announcement because his family needed money to pay an Rp 75,000 debt to their neighbors, from whom they had borrowed essential food.

He said he had to borrow the food after being unemployed for two months. His wife is only a casual worker at a brick factory in Pemalang and her income was not enough to support the whole family.

He borrowed another Rp 75,000 to finance his trip to Jakarta.

In an attempt to save money to pay back the debt, Carmo has struggled to economize on his spending in the capital.

He foregoes breakfast and makes do with just a cup of tea in the morning.

"It's no problem for me not to have three meals a day like other people. I sometimes had to do the same thing in my hometown during hard times," said Carmo, who is plying his pedicab in the Johar Baru area of Central Jakarta.

In the first few days here he managed to save at least Rp 10,000 per day after spending Rp 3,000 on lunch and dinner.

But now he knows that his brighter days are nearing an end.

Like many others, Kasuana, 33, from Indramayu in West Java, also had to spend hours traveling to Jakarta with 12 other pedicab drivers "to start a new life".

Each of them had to pay Rp 28,000 for the trip.

"I now have about Rp 80,000 in my pocket, but I need about Rp 50,000 to return home and the rest will go to my family," Kasuana said.

Kasuana, who joined Thursday's protest at Sutiyoso's office, still hopes that the governor will change his mind once again before he and his fellow drivers head back home.

"We just want to work in narrow streets," he said.