Vendors demand areas with good business potential

Vendors demand areas with good business potential

JAKARTA (JP): While citing readiness to accept public order
regulations, street vendors demanded on Wednesday that they be
given a location with good business potential in return for
vacating busy streets and sidewalks.

They acknowledged they were disturbing passersby and motorists
as they frequently occupied sidewalks and even parts of city
streets, but said in defense that they had no other choice but to
continue their business there.

"The city administration has repeatedly cracked down on
sidewalk vendors and promised new locations for us. But they
never think of providing an area with good business potential."

"They offer space which is far from busy spots, like markets
or roadsides," said Kadmeri, a fruit vendor in front of the
University of Indonesia building on Jl. Diponegoro in Central
Jakarta.

"And I think, like everybody else, we'll look for ways to meet
our basic needs. Moreover, customers are also happy because they
can easily get things they want from us," he added.

Muchlis, a fellow trader selling head scarves, believed that
most sidewalk vendors would not argue if they were relocated to
"good" places and obligated to pay some money as rent for the new
site.

"We occupy this space illegally, but we are still obliged to
pay a certain amount to city administration officers every day.

"And we do not get any compensation if we are forced to leave
the area," he said.

Both Kadmeri and Muchlis said they could understand the
incident on Tuesday at Senen market area in Central Jakarta, in
which 10 city officials were injured during the crackdown on
local street vendors.

Similarly, Musardi, a beverage and cigarette vendor at a bus
shelter in Tanah Abang area, Central Jakarta, is also frustrated.

"We'll also fight the administration officials if they try to
clear us out," he said.

Musardi said some vendors had occupied an area at Tanah Abang
for 15 years, "and we always give money (for the use of it) to
certain city officials every day".

"If we cannot do business here, why do they continuously
collect money from us? They should have banned us from the
beginning then," he said.

Hanafi, who has sold food in front of the Jakarta Police
Headquarters with his brother since 1990, said they regularly pay
fees to police personnel for security.

"But now, we have been ordered to leave the sidewalk as soon
as the beautification project of the headquarters' front garden
area, which is now occupied by some 40 vendors, is finished," he
said.

Second Lt. Edy Sutrisno of the city police internal affairs
department said as many as 30 vendors who set up kiosks in front
of the garden had been told to relocate their business to the
rear part of the compound in order to facilitate work on the
project.

Another vendor, Yanto, who has sold clothes on the pedestrian
overpass near the police headquarters since 1996, insisted that
he had not inconvenienced the public.

"Many people are interested at looking at and buying goods
displayed on the bridge. After all, I can easily pack up my
belongings and leave if there is a crackdown by city personnel,"
he said, citing that no one needed to ask for permission or pay
any fees to run a business in the area.

Meanwhile, Kartini, a food vendor on the city's main
thoroughfare of Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta, said relocating
the vendors would only hurt their regular customers.

"Our trading sites are close to offices so employees can
easily reach us," she said.

Residents

Mixed reactions have been aired by city residents regarding
the street vendors' activities.

Mariana, who is in her 60s, said the vendors were helpful for
elderly citizens like her.

"I don't need to go far to get what I need," she said while
buying oranges near the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in
Central Jakarta for a relative being treated at the hospital.

"I think what the city administration has to do is organize
the vendors and where they sell, so that they won't disturb
passersby," she added.

Another resident, Wicaksono, however was against an
arrangement for the vendors, saying they create traffic problems
in the city.

"You can see that many streets are congested because of them,"
said the teacher at an elementary school in the Cikini area of
Central Jakarta. (ind/06/imn)