Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – As politician after politician attacked President Abdurrahman Wahid during this week's general assembly for failing to care for the welfare of Indonesia's "little people", the irony was not lost on these "little people".
As part of the clean-up operation for the annual general assembly, these people – street singers, beggars and prostitutes – were cleared from central Jakarta's streets.
As members of the political parties slept in five-star hotels, people such as Ms Carmel, a 24-year-old prostitute, will spend tonight and every night for the next three months at one of Jakarta's social rehabilitation centres.
The prostitute professes not to know much about what has been discussed at this week's special session. Her locked dormitory is without a television, so the 30 women there were not able to watch Tuesday's parliamentary broadcast where politicians said Mr Abdurrahman had failed because he had no solutions for people such as her.
She just knows that the police have been particularly vigilant in the streets around Kemayoran over the last fortnight. Some 40 to 50 women have been picked up in the last week, more than the usual two or three women picked up weekly, she says.
The security operation was launched by Jakarta's Governor Sutiyoso who, with the support of the local military and police, vowed to "take stern action against all street people doing their business on the streets".
Many of the politicians for whom the security operation was launched also think that the tradition of cleaning up Jakarta for the special assembly session, a hangover from the Suharto era, is a dated practice.
"It should not be done for the sake of the MPR session but if it is an ongoing policy and carried out in a very responsible manner, we support that. We need law and order but we also have to find a solution for these lower income people, otherwise they will have to turn to crime," says Mr Alvin Lie, a legislator from the PAN party.
In fact, the security forces, including council officers, have been so vigilant in this operation that they have even hauled in some women who say they are neither prostitutes nor beggars. Ms Romiati, a 24-year-old mother of two children, says she was picked up for being alone late at night. Despite her husband's plea that she was a drink seller, she was detained.
In the shadow of Blok M, one of Jakarta's glitzier shopping centres, the prostitutes and their pimps are also feeling the pinch of the security operation.
As council security trucks patrol the streets, young girls grab their pimps' hand and sit at a warung – a roadsite foodstall – pretending to be ordinary Jakarta teenagers sipping tea with their boyfriend on a Saturday night.
While the elaborate network of signs and whistles between the warungs allow these girls to escape the security dragnet, the less organised beggars and street children have not been so lucky.
According to one of the local security guards, at least 50 children who used to beg around this plaza have been moved out, along with illegal mobile noodle vans.
Dr Toto Hartono, a social worker from the Street Children's Assistance Unit, agrees that sending children onto the streets to beg is far from ideal but says many of their families rely on the 5,000 rupiah (S$11) the children make everyday.
"Perhaps the children are forgotten by the government," he says, arguing that instead of sending the children to rehabilitation centres, the government should concentrate on providing basic education for the children.
Meanwhile, at the Hilton hotel, all the executive suites have been booked by members of the general assembly. The rooms with views of the palm-fringed poolside cost US$180 a night or four times what a factory worker earns in a month.
In the simplest cafe, a glass of orange juice costs rupiah 25,000 and a sandwich costs rupiah 40,000, or about nine times the cost of a soup in a warung. Politicians say they feel uncomfortable with the extravagance of accommodating all the general assembly members in a hotel.