Vendors called up for civil defense task force

Vendors called up for civil defense task force

JAKARTA (JP): Due to limited personnel, the Central Jakarta
Mayoralty has recruited vendors from Tanah Abang market and
neighborhood residents to help regulate traffic and keep peace
and order in the business vicinity.

A task force, called the Civil Defense District Unit (Matrik),
has been established and began carrying out its duties last week.

"The task force has been on duty for a week and we (the
Central Jakarta mayoralty) will conduct a monthly evaluation to
monitor its progress," a spokesman for the Central Jakarta
mayoralty office, M. Yanis, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He said the main duties of the task force, operating under the
Central Jakarta mayoralty's supervision, were to handle traffic
jams, watch out for street hoodlums and gambling, and prevent
prostitutes from working in the business vicinity.

The task force is mostly deployed in the area around Jl. Kebon
Jati, where the Tanah Abang market is located. The area is
renowned not only for its traffic jams, but also for its
multiethnic street hoodlums.

Currently, 100 vendors and residents are registered as task
force members. There are three shifts of eight hours duration.
Most of the members spend their time patrolling the streets.

Yanis said Matrik was established following complaints from
residents in the neighborhood of persistent problems such as
traffic jams, undisciplined street vendors and the presence of
hoodlums.

He said the idea to set up the non-official security unit came
from Central Jakarta mayor Andi Subur Abdullah.

Yanis said the city administration did not pay for the
service.

"They (the task force members) are subsidized by fees
collected monthly from vendors and shop owners operating in the
neighborhood," he said. He suggested that each task force member
should receive no less than Rp 7,500 (about US$1) a day.

He said local residents and vendors provided the task force
members with their uniforms.

A similar task force was introduced in November 1997. The then
48-member civilian security unit, however, lasted only a couple
of weeks before it was dispersed for reasons of inefficiency.

"Not only were they smaller in number, but there were frequent
protests against them on the part of residents for being absent
at night," the spokesman said. (03)