Thousands are left stranded owing to MPR traffic detours

JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of passengers of public transportation vehicles were stranded on Thursday due to the closure of numerous streets around the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) building, where a four-day special session ends on Friday.

The city police decided to close the toll road and Jl. Gatot Subroto between the Semanggi cloverleaf and the Slipi intersection from 6 a.m. and diverted traffic elsewhere.

Dozens of police officers and soldiers were deployed in the streets, even small streets leading to the MPR building, such as Jl. Patal Senayan and Jl. Simpruk, to direct motorists to take other routes.

Passengers heading for offices on Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Jl. Thamrin and Jl. Gatot Subroto were forced to stand in bus shelters for ages.

People in their own cars were delayed for hours as they sought alternative routes through side streets.

Some complained bitterly about the closures as it resulted in them reaching their destinations hours later than usual.

"The government has asked us to be calm and continue working, but why are the roads closed," Achmadi, 35, a Tangerang resident, told Antara.

Achmadi, who was heading for Grogol in West Jakarta, said that he was forced to get off the Tangerang-Jakarta toll road at Kebon Jeruk since the Tomang toll gate had been blocked.

Even though numerous people were late for work, employers said they could understand the situation.

In the afternoon, hundreds of passengers on Jl. Cikini Raya, Jl. Salemba Raya and Jl. Senen Raya in Central Jakarta could not hide their impatience as they could not find public transportation to take them home as security personnel had blocked one end of the street.

Rusidah, 40, a restaurant employee, complained that she had waited for a Kopaja 502 minibus for almost an hour to take her to Kampung Rambutan in East Jakarta.

"Actually, I wanted to join my colleagues who decided to walk, but my legs are still painful after I was hurt last week," she said.

She said that her boss decided to close the restaurant at about 2 p.m. as he was worried about the possibility of rioting.

Rudianto who worked at Bank Umum Nasional at the Plaza Atrium shopping center in Central Jakarta, was also "trapped" in the complex as, in addition to the bus shortage, it was raining in the area.

"It's better to wait here (inside the bank) until the rain stops. Anyway, the bus I usually take has been overcrowded all day," said Rudianto, who lives in Tangerang.

While the situation caused hardship to many people, others benefited, especially ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers.

Misdar, an ojek driver who used to operate around Plaza Senayan on Jl. Asia Afrika, South Jakarta, said that he had earned about Rp 30,000 from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. alone.

"It is difficult to get such an amount of money on normal days," Misdar said, adding that he usually made between Rp 15,000 and Rp 20,000 the whole day.

He said many employees of state-television station TVRI and workers at the Office of the State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sport were forced to take ojek to get to work.

He charged them between Rp 2,500 and Rp 3,000 each, depending on the distances, more than double the ordinary fee of only Rp 1,000 a trip.

Other ojek drivers, including those in Slipi in West Jakarta and in other areas, also admitted to landing a windfall from the situation.

Many offices and shops around the affected areas closed much earlier in anticipation of possible riots.

Most of the shops at Plaza Senayan on Jl. Asia Afrika, for example, shut at 11 a.m., according to Soleh, one of the shopping center's security guards.

He said that all the shops were closed at 5 p.m, five hours earlier than usual.

"The shop operators decided to close their shops because there were only a few buyers today," he said.

Yaya, a security guard at Atrium Plaza in Senen, said the management decided to close the complex at 2:30 p.m. as many convoys of students demonstrations were in the area.

Practically all the other shops in the area also closed hours earlier than usual.

Similar scenes could also be seen along Jl. Pahlawan Revolusi, East Jakarta, following rumors that a shopping center in Pondok Gede, Bekasi, had been burned by rioters.

A fire destroyed a cinema complex and several shops in the Ramayana shopping center in Pondok Gede, but no fatalities were reported.

The fire, which is estimated to have caused hundreds of millions of rupiah in losses, started early Thursday morning took firefighters two hours to extinguish.

Bekasi Police chief. Adjie Rustam Ramdja denied that the shopping center was burned by rioters, saying that an electricity short circuit caused the fire. (jun/ind)