Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Thousands of becak drivers took to the streets of central Jakarta yesterday to demand that their pollution-free form of transport again be allowed to ply Jakarta's central streets.

At least 2,000 becaks or pedicabs – many sporting the red and white Indonesian flag, others the flag of Ms Megawati's PDI Perjuangan party – peacefully rode from the National Monument (Monas) to the Welcome Monument in central Jakarta and then all the way to Jakarta's port of Tanjung Priok.

The becak drivers, who were celebrating World Environment Day, demanded that they again be allowed to transport people in the streets around the centre of Jakarta.

Once a common sight cycling along Jakarta's jam-packed main streets, the drivers were banned from the inner city last year because they slowed down the already sluggish traffic. Outside central Jakarta, however, becaks are still a common and cheap form of transport still used to go short distances or to travel along streets too small for buses.

As if to prove that their leg-powered, three-wheel vehicle is no slower than their motorised counterparts, the mostly passenger- less becaks kept pace with the motorised traffic on the long 20- km stretch to Tanjung Priok yesterday.

Drawing attention to the negative effects of Jakarta's diesel- spewing traffic, the becak drivers' flyers proclaimed that "our earth has been destroyed by motorised vehicles".

Jakarta's frequent haze is blamed on vehicles still permitted to use diesel fuel – a high-lead-content fuel that has been phased out of most modern cities.

"Why can't we drive around Monas when we don't make any pollution?" asked Mr Mohammad Sanusi, a 41-year-old becak driver who wants to be able to drive his pedicab around the smaller streets of Jakarta's main attractions such as the National Monument.

Mr Mohammad agrees that becaks slow traffic on highways and major roads, but he thinks the three-wheelers should be permitted to use the minor roads around markets and residential areas in the inner city.

He wants access to central Jakarta because he says he makes only a little money driving around a small area in Tanjung Priok. "If it's busy I make 20,000 rupiah (S$5) a day, but if it's not, maybe less than rupiah 10,000," said Mr Mohammad, who became a becak driver when he lost his job as a construction worker eight years ago.