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No budget for ‘Pak Ogah’: Jakarta administration
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Traffic police and transportation agency personnel stop a motorcyclist for using the dedicated Transjakarta bus lane on Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta, recently. (Warta Kota/Nur Ichsan)
T
he city administration has dismissed a request from the Jakarta Police to pay monthly salaries to informal traffic attendants, popularly called Pak Ogah, who have undergone traffic control training with the police since Aug. 21.
“Where will the money come from? There is no [allocation] for them in the regional budget,” Jakarta Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat said on Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.
City councilor Syarifudin said the administration had finalized the draft for the 2017 budget priorities (KUA-PPAS) as the basis for the city’s 2017 revised budget.
He advised the police to propose the idea again in 2018.
Commenting on the issue, Jakarta Police traffic division chief Sr. Comr. Halim Pagarra said he would visit City Hall and talk to Djarot about this matter in the near future.
“I will explain to him that the program must be run,” he said.
Halim also said he hoped the Jakarta Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) could pay for them.
Previously, the police stated that they would ask for financial contribution from private enterprises located where the Pak Ogah operate. The traffic attendants help to keep traffic moving at U-turns or road intersections in return for tips.
The attendants got the name Pak Ogah in reference to a character in the popular 1990s puppet show Si Unyil, where Pak Ogah is an unemployed person who asks for small change from people he meets. (hol)
