he car towing incident that turned into a dispute between Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan and artist Ratna Sarumpaet earlier this week could serve as a moment to reintroduce a bylaw on transportation that forbids parking on the roadside, said Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno.
“Little do people know that there is a bylaw specifically regulating transportation, one of which states that people are only allowed to park their vehicles in designated parking areas,” he said on Wednesday, referring to Bylaw No. 5/2014 on transportation.
“One of the most common examples is people parking their car in front of their house. People should know that is forbidden,” Sandiaga said as quoted by kompas.com.
He was referring to the incident involving Ratna and her car, which was towed by the Jakarta Transportation Agency last Tuesday for being parked on a roadside at Honda Tebet Park, South Jakarta.
Ratna claimed she did not violate any law because there was no traffic sign indicating parking in the area was prohibited. She said she then immediately called Anies' phone number and talked to his staff to report the incident. His staff then reportedly helped settle the case by having the city transportation agency officer returning her car.
Ratna was a supporter of Anies during his gubernatorial campaign.
However, Jakarta Transportation Agency head Andri Yansyah said he never received any call or order from Anies to return Ratna’s car. He also said his staff did not apologize to Ratna for towing her car.
“She may say this and that, but she can't prove whether [the agency officers were] really sorry for towing her car,” he said.
Efforts to enforce the private car space rule were made during the administration of former governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat (May 9, 2017 – Oct. 15, 2017), as the bylaw also states that car owners must have proof of car space ownership to get a vehicle registration certificate (STNK). (vla)
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