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Monas vendors still in the dark on relocation
Several hundred vendors located in a parking lot for visitors to the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta are still in the dark regarding the details of a rumored relocation to a new marketplace still under construction
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everal hundred vendors located in a parking lot for visitors to the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta are still in the dark regarding the details of a rumored relocation to a new marketplace still under construction.
'We don't really know anything, the plan still isn't clear,' said Yayan, a seller of fried snacks who has been peddling his product at Monas for seven years.
Deputy governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama and the Cooperatives and Small and Medium
Enterprises Ministry have implied that they want to relocate the remaining vendors and their kiosks to a new, as yet unfinished market building.
'[The city authorities] came to us and said the market would be finished in four months. It has been four months now and it's not yet done,' said Yayan. 'We're all confused,'
For the most part, the vendors are ambivalent about the prospect of moving, given that the new market space is a stone's throw from their current location and still very accessible to tourists visiting the monument who are looking for food or souvenirs.
'I think [customer traffic] will be about the same,' said Acink, a wood carving and trinket seller who has been selling at Monas for 20 years.
Sap, a shirt and cloth seller concurred, adding that the city administration should give more attention to the vendors at Monas.
The vendors have very little information about the process in general, and only rough estimations of when the relocation will take place. Visits from both city and ministry officials have been few and far between, according to Tin, a pants and jeans seller who started selling at Monas three months ago.
'People from the ministry come only three times a month,' said Tin. He added that there is no more than a half-hearted commitment to updating the vendors regarding the relocation plan.
It is rumored among vendors that the new market will be finished in September.
With the help of the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), the city government recently evicted thousands of illegal street vendors and hoodlums, who have been blamed for the deteriorating environment and rising crime in the area.
Those who are currently allowed to sell from designated spots in the monument park will also be relocated, as they harbored their unlicensed colleagues at the time of the Satpol PP raid.
