Street Vendors with Assets of Trillions of Rupiah Poorly Managed

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Street vendors display their merchandise on Jl. Jatibaru Raya under the Tanah Abang skybridge, Central Jakarta, on Friday. The multipurpose bridge connecting the Pasar Market with Tanah Abang Station is still under construction.

The arrival of train passengers is always eagerly awaited. Ignoring the sweat and the scorching sun, street vendors compete with each other to win over prospective buyers.

“This one is okay! It’s only Rp 35,000! ” Mezi, 20, said, aggressively persuading someone who approached his stall on Friday. Finally, two pieces of clothing were sold.

Mezi has been selling his wares for several months on the sidewalk of Jl. Jatibaru, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta. Previously, he operated at a kiosk in Tanah Abang Market. "Selling on the sidewalk is better than at a kiosk. It’s more free. Inside the kiosk it’s tightly regulated, its’ not free,“ Mezi added.

The presence of the street vendors has inevitably been enjoyed by city residents in general. Everyone feels free to sell and buy at will. In the Tanah Abang area, for example, the freedom is not only enjoyed by street vendors, but also customers, pedestrians and public transport drivers. Everyone has their own goals and interests. Public order is ignored.

Tanah Abang has two main zones: Tanah Abang Station and Tanah Abang Market. Both are packed with thousands of people every day, comprising commuters and those coming to Tanah Abang Market to shop or to do business.

Tanah Abang is also crowded with public transportation vehicles using the side of the road. As a result, chaos continues. The team for the acceleration of development at the Jakarta governor’s office, Her Pramtama, said the movement or mobility of the people created economic activity.

"For example, people just getting off the commuter train and waiting for their motorcycle taxi to arrive. While waiting, they can buy food, drinks or anything else. It\'s called impulse buying. The street vendors see this as an opportunity,” he said.

As of July 2018, there were about 650 street vendors selling on Jl. Jatibaru, according to data provided by the department of cooperatives, micro, small and medium enterprises and trade (KUMKMP).

In order to reduce the chaos and at the same time protect the activities of the street vendors, a skybridge is currently under construction on Jl. Jatibaru. The construction of the skybridge, which began in August 2018, is scheduled for completion later this month.

The bridge will provide 446 kiosks for registered street vendors. "The remaining street vendors will be relocated to the sixth floor of Blok F of Tanah Abang Market," said Adi Ariantara, the head of the Jakarta KUMKMP Office.

The street vendors that will receive a kiosk were selected randomly. Adi said the draw was conducted from 11 to 13 October 2018. The president director of market operator PD Pasar Jaya, Arief Nasrudin, said his office was ready to help street vendors who did not get a kiosk on the skybridge.

According to the plan, Tanah Abang station will be directly connected to the skybridge. Train passengers can use the gate on the east side of the station to reach the bridge, which will be 386.4 meters in length and 12.6 meters wide.

With this design plan, the train passengers can either go shopping in Tanah Abang or continue their journey with other modes of transportation. "We are trying to stop the street vendors from spilling onto the road. The road under the skybridge will be used only for traffic. It is impossible to make it completely free of street vendors, but we will reduce the number of them," said the deputy mayor of Central Jakarta, Irwandi.

The Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) will be assigned to maintain the public order on Jl. Jatibaru. "After a month, it will be evaluated," said Irwandi.

Unclear arrangement

There should be a solution for street vendors and the public so that the potential conflicts between the street vendors and the public can be reduced. The street vendors are often blamed as the culprit of the city\'s congestion. They are also often evicted and their lives are full of uncertainties.

Sarip, a food trader on Jl. Kuningan Madya in Setiabudi, South Jakarta, has been moved twice. Sarip and dozens of other food traders in the area are still waiting to be relocated to a temporary site on the sidewalks at Jl. Kuningan Madya and Kuningan Mulia. The street vendors will use part of the sidewalk. As a result, there will only be about 50 centimeters of the sidewalk that can be used by pedestrians. This has drawn a strong protest from residents, including those from the Coalition of Pedestrians.

Giving street vendors a place to carry out their activities on the sidewalks is not prohibited. However, the use of sidewalks by street vendors should be well managed with a proper arrangement so that the rights of the pedestrians are still upheld. However, in Jakarta, the activities of street vendors on the sidewalk remain uncontrolled.

Based on Kompas’ monitoring on Friday afternoon, government-assisted street vendors in front of the soccer stadium of the Customs and Excise office in East Jakarta occupy about three meters of the sidewalks on Jl. Bojana Tirta Raya 1, Pisangan Timur, Pulogadung.

There are about 50 food stalls along the 150-meter sidewalk. Customers park their vehicles on the roadside, obstructing the traffic.

Tika, 26, a pedestrian who is also a resident of Matraman, East Jakarta, asked the government to find another location for the traders. She protested against the use of the sidewalk as a trading location. "It will further worsen the traffic jams on this road," she said.

Based on data from the Jakarta KUMKMP Office, the number of street vendors reached about 170,100 in 2018. About 27,000 of them have been relocated to 345 permanent and temporary locations. The remaining 167,000 are scattered everywhere, such as in places where they can easily find customers. Their presence always creates chaos.

The Jakarta Investment and One-Stop Integrated Service Agency (PTSP)  estimates the total investment of small businesses, including street vendors, in Jakarta in 2017 to have reached about Rp 180 trillion to Rp 200 trillion. They play an important role in economic activities as well as in reducing unemployment.

The Jakarta administration has, for decades, been unable to establish a comprehensive concept in dealing with the street vendors. As a result, chaos continues to occur.

(IRE/E07/E08)