Tanah Abang woes continue

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Governor Sutiyoso insists that his administration will go ahead with the plan to demolish the Tanah Abang textile market, although the City Council has established a special team to look deeper into the protracted problems amid opposition from the traders.

"I have no problem with the special team as long as it is not established to obstruct the administration's plan to reconstruct the market building," he said.

Should the special team propose that the demolition plan be suspended, Sutiyoso asserted, the team has to make a written statement that it would bear responsibility for any incidents that occur on the premises, including collapse.

City Council Commission B on the economy and D on development affairs decided on Wednesday to set up a team to assess the city's plan to bulldoze the textile market, the biggest in Southeast Asia, amid persistent objection from traders to the plan.

Council speaker Ade Surapriatna said that the team would be tasked to give a second opinion on the feasibility of the market building.

Council deputy speaker Maringan Pangaribuan added that many experts have offered their free services to help assess the project.

The administration, through its city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya, revealed earlier that the market needs total renovation.

Citing a previous analysis made by an expert team of the Bandung Institute of Technology, the administration said the market could collapses due to its weak structure.

The traders, however, had suspicions that the demolition and renovation plan was only a ploy to evict the traders.

The administration plans to develop the market into a shopping mall.