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Street vendors, ‘ojol’ drivers run business as usual amid protests in Jakarta
While thousands of people staged demonstrations at several strategic points in Jakarta on Thursday, online ride-hailing (ojol) drivers and street vendors continued business by exercising some caution as to avoid potential violence.
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Street vendors peddle their sales on Aug. 22, 2024, amid demonstrations to reject the ratification of the Revised Regional Election Law in front of the House of Representatives Building in Jakarta. The protest was part of Indonesia's emergency warning movement that went viral on social media after the House of Representatives maneuvered to ignore the Constitutional Court's decision (JP/Muhammad Zaenuddin)
W
hile thousands of people staged demonstrations at several strategic points in Jakarta on Thursday, app-based ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers and street vendors continued their business by exercising some caution to avoid potential violence.
Fatah, a street vendor selling snacks and beverages like hot coffee with his bicycle, ran his businesses like any other day in front of the Sudirman railway station in Central Jakarta, some five kilometers away from a demonstration at the House of Representatives building.
The 30-year-old said he was careful enough not to approach the protest sites after learning from his experience in the 2019 election protest in front of the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) office, also in Central Jakarta, when his goods were damaged during the chaos.
"I prefer to stay here. If I go to the protest location, I will get stuck there, and it will be difficult to get out because the roads are crowded," said the starling vendor, a reference to ‘Starbucks keliling’ or a play on the name of the famous American coffeehouse chain and keliling, which means mobile.
Meanwhile, ojol (online ojek) driver Rahmat Subatin, 53, who cheerfully told The Jakarta Post to call him Jambrong, said the traffic was fine as he avoided the protest locations.
He assumed that people had been informed about the rally sites and tried to avoid the crowd.
