Sutiyoso notorious for hostile attitude toward street traders

Sutiyoso notorious for hostile attitude toward street traders

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For those working in informal sector businesses, Governor
Sutiyoso, who was installed for a second term on Monday, is
notorious for his hostile policy toward them.

"Who says we have a new governor? We have the same old one,
the one we hate, as he (Sutiyoso) has made us suffer," said
Yogyakarta-born Suwarto, 45, a sidewalk vendor at Jatinegara flea
market in East Jakarta.

With Sutiyoso's reelection, Suwarto remarked, their hardship
would be prolonged, even made worse.

"Almost every week, we, street traders here, must rush to
escape violent raids carried out by city public order officers,"
said Suwarto, who has been running his business for four years.

The city administration has regularly carried out raids on
street vendors, who are accused of disturbing public order and
causing traffic jams in the area, as they often run their
businesses not only at the roadside, but also on part of the road
too.

The raids, however, are not effective as the vendors always
return to the sites because there is no relocation program, while
certain officers allow them to operate after paying a bribe.

Azas Tigor Nainggolan of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta)
contended that Sutiyoso's reelection spelled further trouble for
informal sector businesses, given the incumbent's bad record.

"We have already witnessed Sutiyoso's policies (during his
first five-year term), which are unfriendly toward the informal
sector," said Tigor.

He added those hostile policies were manifest in incessant
raids carried out on pedicab drivers and street vendors, and in
the eviction of squatters.

The informal sector encompasses a wide range of services and
trade in goods, including house servants, market sellers,
scavengers and construction workers, to name but a few. More
people work in the sector especially after the economic crisis
hit the country in 1997.

The latest survey on the country's employment indicators by
the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) showed that 62 percent, or
55.6 million people, of the 89.7 million employed in the country,
worked in the informal sector.

Tigor blasted the city administration for having double
standards in dealing with informal sector businesses.

"On the one hand, the administration never acknowledges their
existence, but on the other, some of its unscrupulous and corrupt
officials extort them as their cash cow," said Tigor.

Tigor suggested the administration recognize the informal
sector as a potential and significant source of income to the
city's coffers rather than as a problem.

"We should bear in mind that they (informal sector businesses)
never trouble the administration over capital or job creation.
Instead, they create both their own jobs and a market for
themselves," said Tigor.

Referring to his personal observation of over 400 fruit
vendors at Pasar Rebo, East Jakarta, last year, Tigor said that
they paid illegal fees of Rp 135,000 per month to rent a plot of
land.

"Still, they were required to pay other fees for "security" to
local hoodlums and for rubbish disposal to garbagemen, totaling
about Rp 5,000 a day," Tigor said.

Similarly, Irwanto, an urban policy expert at Atmajaya
University, criticized the administration for having no idea
about how to deal with informal sector businesses.

"The administration's policy tends to side with those who have
massive capital and neglect small-scale businesses, such as those
run within the informal sector. As a result, only those who have
money can afford the hefty rents in multistory buildings, while
small traders can only use the pavements and roadsides," said
Irwanto.

He contended that small-scale businesses could therefore not
be blamed if they used pavements and roadsides, given the
administration's failure to provide alternative, suitable sites
at which they could operate.

Tigor said the administration's hostile policy toward the
informal sector indicated its failure to understand the nature of
the sector as one of the economic pillars of the city's economy.