Thousands are left stranded owing to MPR traffic detours

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)