Sutiyoso urged to stop raid on vendors

Sutiyoso urged to stop raid on vendors

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A string of aggressive raids on street vendors across the
capital, a micro business that serves the needs of Jakarta's
middle and low-income groups, has drawn criticism from the City
Council's Commission B on the economy.

"We urge Governor Sutiyoso and the mayors to stop the
raids ... until the administration finds a way out or a place to
relocate the street vendors," councillor Nuraini Syaifullah said
on Tuesday during a general session to analyze the use of the
city budget 2004.

The latest clash during an eviction of street vendors took
place earlier this month between public order officers and the
students of the Indonesia Christian University (UKI) in Cawang,
East Jakarta, who backed the vendors.

Another clash in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, last week, also
injured several officers and vendors.

"Such raids, which are not accompanied by other alternatives
for the affected street vendors, are simply partial and not
comprehensive," Nuraini lamented.

The call was made while members of the Jakarta chapter of the
Indonesian Street Vendors Association (APKLI) was holding a
three-day mass rally in protest over the evictions.

"We would not mind if the administration wanted to manage us
seriously. Our association could guarantee that street vendors
could contribute Rp 1.5 billion to the city's coffers every day,"
association chairman Muhamad Muhdi said on Tuesday.

The association estimates that there are more than 300,000
street vendors here in the capital, higher that the Jakarta
Bureau of Statistic's report of 141,000 vendors, who need a
special, city-backed management body.

But Jakarta Cooperatives, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises
Agency head Sukri Bey said that his agency was seeking stronger
authority to manage street vendors, so it could impose zone-based
fees on street vendors starting September.

The fees will range between Rp 3,000 and Rp 10,000 per day per
stall measuring a maximum of two meters by two meters. Higher
fees will be imposed on stalls more spacious than the standard
stall located at strategic locations.

In a related development, both the administration and council
have agreed to revise Bylaw No. 2/2002 on markets regulating that
every mall or shopping center must provide between 10 percent and
20 percent of their premises for small-scale vendors.

The implementation of the bylaw has been strongly opposed by
the managements of the malls and shopping centers, which claim
that the ruling would scare investors away and infringed on their
right to manage their own properties. They challenged the bylaw
last year in the administrative court, which ruled in favor of
the businesspeople and ordered the administration to revoke it.