Seventy-year-old Jimmy sat on a rickety, wooden stool on Sunday, taking a break from packing paint cans into his storage unit, while gesturing at the ongoing demolition of 13 ruko (shop houses) on Jl. Jatinegara Barat in Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta.

'€œI'€™ve never been so angry in my life. We were told about the demolition by the [Kampung Melayu] subdistrict head on Tuesday night, and the Satpol PP [Public Order Agency] officers were there at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday to make sure none of us interfered. There were [so many] of them, it was like they were preparing for war,'€ he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Jimmy, who lives in Senen, Central Jakarta, said he had been selling paint at a tiny stall in one of the shops for the past 22 years. Most of his customers were local residents living by the Ciliwung River, who came to him as the shop was close and due to his lower prices, at around Rp 100,000 for a 2.5-liter paint can.

The sudden announcement of the demolition had shocked him, especially as he had inherited the stall from his parents.

'€œIt was never about the money because I never had much work there, only enough for my family'€™s needs. I'€™m just so disappointed,'€ he said.

Like many other store owners, Jimmy explained he was not a squatter and had building and ownership certificates.

The eviction of shop owners from the 13 shop houses is part of the central government'€™s and city administration'€™s plan to dredge and widen the banks of the Ciliwung, which regularly overflows, to avoid perennial flooding from worsening.

On Wednesday, around 800 Satpol PP officers were deployed to observe the demolition, while panicking shop owners tried to stop it, according to tempo.co.

Although Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo had promised on Wednesday that the store owners who had building and ownership permits would be relocated to a different area by the end of the year and receive Rp 14 million (US$1,197) per square-meter, Jimmy said that he had not heard a word from the authorities.

'€œIt'€™s like they don'€™t care about us. I saved my things and I have a place to go, but others weren'€™t so lucky,'€ he said.

The leader of the Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka community organization in Bukit Duri, South Jakarta, Sandyawan Sumardi, told the Post that the shop houses carried historical significance and had been Jakarta'€™s main trading center for decades.

The shops sold anything from building materials to carpets, and Sandyawan went on to describe the design of one of the shops, which was heavily influenced by Chinese culture, and said that it had stood there for over 60 years.

'€œWhat the city administration tends to ignore is that these people are not squatters, they have permits to live and sell there, and that means that they have a right to be involved in the discussions about the city'€™s plans. They [the authorities] don'€™t seem to want to communicate with the people living here,'€ he said, adding that it was difficult for the public to access information about their fate from the authorities.

Sandyawan, familiar with hearing the complaints of the community, accompanied the shop owners on Friday as they stood in shock at the sight of the rubble.

Forty-year-old washerwoman Marhamah spoke of her shock at how the area had now changed.

'€œI'€™ve been shopping here since I was a child, even my grandmother shopped here,'€ she said. (fss)

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