Gangs of Jakarta: Several men suspected of being thugs are taken to the Jakarta Police’s detention center after being rounded up from several locations across the city. Police launched sweeps on thugs ahead of the upcoming elections. (JP/J. Adiguna)

Four months after the first raid on thugs by the police, street vendors, bajaj (three-wheeled taxis) and angkot (public minibus) drivers in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, say they now have a safer environment in which to conduct business.

Previously, vendors of bags and dresses along the sidewalk at Tanah Abang said they had to pay at least Rp 1,000 (8 US cents) to no less than 10 people a day.

And that did not include Sundays, when they were each forced to pay up Rp 30,000, says Ade, a street vendor selling ladies’ shirts in the area since 1980.

That made it a total of Rp 380,000 a month just from vendors of fashion merchandise such as hats, bags, shoes, shirts and dresses. Tanah Abang is a major trading center for textiles and textile products in the country, and even in Southeast Asia.

These were baseless, illegal fees demanded by preman, or hoodlums, roaming around the marketplace and bus terminal, spreading fear among vendors and drivers for years.

But thanks to a national war against thugs, launched by the National Police last November, traders no longer have to set aside money for those informal daily costs.

From Nov. 2, 2008, to Feb. 15, 2009, the police conducted 4,667 raids and netted 18,819 suspects. They released 16,218 people and detained the rest.

And the hoodlums haven’t returned since. At least, not all of them.

As Dedi, a bajaj driver, says, “Actually, some friends of mine still have trouble at other places, but it’s only one or two thugs a day. I personally don’t face that kind of threat any more, since the first raid [in November].”

He used to park his bajaj close to the sidewalk at the eastern end of Tanah Abang.

When the hoodlums were still around, he had to pay Rp 1,000 to each one who demanded a “street fee” every time he picked up a customer on the streets in the neighborhood around Tanah Abang Market. Normally, he stopped in the area between five and eight times a day.

Such illegal fees ate away at his daily earnings and added to his burdens, since he already had to pay Rp 35,000 to the bajaj owner in daily rental fees.

“Actually, I pay the lowest fees because I ride the bajaj that’s in the worst condition, called the doyok,” Dedi says, adding other bajaj drivers paid up to Rp 50,000 in rental fees depending on the shape their vehicles were in.

With more police officers on the streets now, Dedi says he no longer faces problems.

However, other unfortunate drivers still get bullied by thugs elsewhere, and do not dare to report the return of the thugs to the police.

“They fear that the few thugs still operating will hurt them.”

Etty, the owner of Etty Jaya shop, says things are different nowadays.

“Recently, we haven’t had to pay ‘protection money’. There are no more thugs,” she says.

She adds she now pays a security fee, included in the rental for her stall.

“Before the raids, we had to deal with those thugs, especially when no officers were around,” she says. “Currently, I know some thugs are still operating, but so far I haven’t seen them coming over to my shop.”

Rully, a street vendor who has been selling bags in the area for the past 10 years, recalled harder times when the thugs were ubiquitous there.

“I had to pay Rp 2,000, sometimes Rp 5,000, to each thug demanding protection money. I had to set aside at least Rp 20,000 a day just for that,” he recalls. “But now I’m relieved because no one comes around extorting fees anymore, ever since the raids.”

Although the thugs have disappeared, street vendors with no permits to ply their trade at the market, like Rully, still have another enemy No. 1: Public order officials.

“We prefer to play a cat-and-mouse game with them. We don’t open our stalls until noon, since the officials usually patrol the area in the mornings,” he says.

He adds if they do catch him, they often allow him to keep his merchandise.

“But they still take away my tent, which is worth Rp 300,000.”

Poniman, an angkot driver plying M11 Palmerah-Kebon Jeruk route, says he used to pay Rp 8,000 each time he entered the bus terminal.

“Running five trips a day, I had to pay Rp 40,000 a day,” he recounts. “That’s why many of us [drivers] opted not to enter the terminal.

“Now we don’t have this problem any more, except at some junctions such as in Slipi, where thugs take turns demanding Rp 500 from us. Just multiply that by 5 or 6 a day.” says Poniman, from Pacitan, East Java.

Other public minivan drivers plying the same route are held up for Rp 115,000 to Rp 150,000 a day, he adds.

These are hard days for them, he says, because now they also face a drop in passenger numbers.

“In the past, we could find lots of people taking an angkot in the evenings. Now, many of them have switched to motorcycles.” (iwp)

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