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)