Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Up to 2,500 public minivan and bus drivers staged a strike in Bandarlampung on Monday to protest a decree on fare cuts.
The rally, organized by the Bandarlampung branch of the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda), paralyzed public transportation in the city.
The drivers protested the Bandarlampung mayor's decree on a 20 percent fare cut, following a slew of recent fuel price cuts by the government.
Thousands of passengers, including students, civil servants and private sector employees, were left stranded, forcing the local police to deploy trucks to transport them.
The Bandarlampung municipal administration also operated six buses to transport passengers for free, in addition to the government-owned Damri buses already in operation earlier.
Despite the emergency measures, however, many passengers were still stranded, with the number of vehicles nowhere near adequate for the amount of commuters. Many people were forced to take ojek (motorcycle taxis) or walk.
In January, Bandarlampung Mayor Eddy Sutrisno issued a decree calling for public transportation fares to be slashed from Rp 2,500 (22 US cents) to Rp 2,000. Drivers claimed that with the new fares, they would not be able to make a profit.
"We have to pay Rp 100,000 per day for each vehicle. We won't get back that amount if the fare is set at Rp 2,000 per passenger," said Wardi, 30, a minivan driver plying the Tanjungkarang-Telukbetung route.
He added minivan owners did not care about their drivers' difficulties. "They ask us to pay them Rp 100,000 per day. If we get less, we have to make it up with our own money. That means I go home without any money," he said.
Organda's Bandarlampung head Mirwan Karim said the drivers would continue their strike until the mayor revoked the decree. "The mayor previously cut the fare to Rp 2,300, but has now cut it further to Rp 2,000," he said, urging the mayor to meet the drivers' demands.
However, Mayor Eddy called the demand irrational, saying the government had already cut fuel prices three times. "We reduced fuel prices based on two factors: falling world oil prices, and demand from the public," he said.
He added he would fight back against the drivers' action, and had ordered his subordinates not to hesitate in revoking operating licenses if drivers and Organda representatives did not want to apply the new fares.
"The decision to reduce the fare was taken in line with an assessment from the Bandarlampung Traffic Council. We did not do it arbitrarily," he said.
With regard to the rally, I.B. Ilham Malik, director of Bandarlampung University's City and Regional Studies, expressed concern over the plethora of minivans in the city, which he said caused each driver to earn less.
"The Rajabasa-Tanjungkarang route, for instance, covers a distance of only 7 kilometers. But it's served by 500 minivans. For all routes in the city, there are a total of 2,500 minivans and buses," he said.