Sutiyoso's 'becak' blunder

Sutiyoso's 'becak' blunder

Perhaps many of our readers have never seen the creature
called a becak, the man-powered pedicab about which the Jakarta
authorities have made much fuss lately.

This long-forgotten (in the capital at least) means of public
transportation, which is inhuman in the way it is operated, has
become a hot topic since Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said he would
not prevent their return in several Jakarta areas and then a few
days later reversed his decision.

The reason for their return to the capital is clear. The
drivers want to survive the calamitous economic collapse.
Pedicab drivers were a symbol of destitution even when the
country's economic growth was so impressive. But the way they try
to make ends meet by pedaling a tricycle to transport passengers
for a handful of rupiah is really a pitiful portrait of
exploitation of man by man.

Fully aware of this grimy picture, Sutiyoso spontaneously
decided to let the poor-man's taxi return to the capital because
it looked like their last available way to make ends meet. The
governor's reason was welcomed by several circles but he has
failed to impress Jakarta city councilors.

They remembered that the long process of banning the pedicabs
from Jakarta streets, which culminated in 1970, was based on law.
They found now that, ironically, Sutiyoso too was on the wrong
side of the law when he reacted positively to the poor people's
presence.

The situation developed into a comic irony as Sutiyoso made
another ill-advised decision. Under the councilors' pressure he
withdrew his tolerance and ordered the poor drivers to peddle
back out of town.

It looked like turning in a farce. The drivers were left in
confusion. After seeing the greenlight from the governor more of
them came. They arrived on trucks, not only from the surrounding
towns of Bekasi and Tangerang but as far afield as West and
Central Java. Last Friday there were 2,000 of them in the area.

These ill-clad, ill-housed and ill-nourished people have to go
back to their dark, impoverished world. They must be willing to
do so but they need money. And Sutiyoso said Thursday that his
administration could not afford to send the poor people back
home.

Now why has Sutiyoso been so indecisive? For the answer to why
the governor made such an ill-advised decision one should delve
into his background. He might have lived in surroundings where
the supremacy of law was not respected that much and the poor
were easy targets of public order operations.

What the governor should do now is to place himself in the
sandals of the pedicab drivers. They might have rejoiced to hear
his promise that they could operate in the metropolitan city
until the economy recovers. The poor people might have heard that
the recovery will take five to eight years to complete. And of
course they never thought that a governor could have been so dim-
witted.

So what we will now have is an antipedicab operation by the
notorious city public order officers, who as in the old days, are
unlikely to hesitate to use force when confronting the poor.