City does little to stop ‘protection’ shakedowns

City officials say they know thugs are collecting illegal protection fees from the public on the city streets — but say cracking down on such illegal practices is outside their authority.

Drivers of public transportation vehicles such as minivans (mikrolet) and buses are not required to pay any security fees, the Transportation Agency’s land transportation division head Henda Sunu-groho said.

“The city does not levy any security fees on any public transportation drivers,” he said, adding that the only payment drivers needed to make were for annual vehicle inspection fees.

“The vehicle inspection fees are typically paid for by the public transportation company,” he said.

He said he was not responsible for the illegal security fees collected by thugs.

“If thugs collect protection money from minivan drivers, just report it to the police. It’s not our men who did it,” he said.

Traditional market operator PD Pasar Jaya representative Nur Havids said his office had never imposed illegal security fees or employed thugs at the markets they operate in Jakarta.

“We collect money from vendors for security and cleaning service costs,” he said, adding that his officers only collected officially-authorized amounts.

He said that the fees varied depending on the size of the shop, the types of the market and the goods sold.

“We order them to pay between Rp 800 (9 US cents) to Rp 3,000 each day, but some of the vendors prefer a monthly bill.

“Thugs exist in the markets and often threaten vendors and buyers,” he said, adding that “our officers never intimidate people.”

He said that Pasar Jaya supervised parking management inside their markets.

“Our parking fees are official and in line with the city bylaw,” he added.

City Transportation Agency parking unit head Benyamin Bukit said that many parties took advantage of the weakness in the parking management system.

The 2006 bylaw on parking fees provides for an on-street parking fees of Rp 500 for motorcycles, Rp 1,000 for cars and Rp 2,000 for buses.

However thugs on the city’s streets are running outlaw parking security businesses, he said.

“Thugs are exploiting our weaknesses,” Benyamin said.

He said his office had previously fired corrupt parking officers who charged customers more than the official fee.

Business license broker Eko Budianto said every territory in Jakarta’s entertainment district had its own bosses or “musclemen”.

“These thugs provide protection for people on their turf, managing security for those who run entertainment business, especially pubs or bars,” Eko said.

Most businesses choose to avoid conflict by following the rules of the thugs, he added.

Indonesian Association of Entertainment Businesses (Aspehindo) secretary-general Adrian Maelite said that licensing fees for nightlife entertainment business such as pubs and bars did not include security fees.

“I can not comment any further on the security money. The amount depends on who runs the security business in area where the pub or bar exists,” he said. (ipa)