Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Banned from Jakarta's streets in the late 80s because they were considered inhumane and backward, becaks – or pedicabs – have become the centre of a fierce struggle between the city authorities and the drivers who demand the right to earn an honest living.

But a non-government body charged that the Jakarta Governor is merely using the pedicab drivers as scapegoats for the city's problems.

In the wake of last Tuesday's violent protest, in which hundreds of pedicab drivers attacked city officials conducting the raid, killing one security guard and seriously injuring two others, Jakarta's Deputy Governor Abdul Kahfi vowed that the police would use even harsher tactics in future raids against the becaks. "They will use rubber bullets and even live bullets if necessary," he was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Post.

Ms Wardah Hafidz, co-ordinator of the Urban Poor Consortium campaigning for pedicab drivers, said: "The city council targets the weakest in society because it is easier to make them the scapegoats for all the problems of the city when actually it is their incompetence at practising good governance." The council is trying to eliminate pedicabs and illegal vendors from the streets because it does not know how to deal with the high number of poor people and the steep crime rate, she added.

Many of the 10,000 pedicab drivers in Jakarta are former factory workers or labourers like Mr Munardi, a 28-year-old construction worker who took up pedicab driving after he was laid off at the start of the economic crisis.

He earns around 100,000 rupiah to 150,000 rupiah per week driving his pedicab. He also works as a security guard for extra money to support his wife and young child.

Mr Munardi said he would not know how to survive if his becak was confiscated, like what happened to many of his friends in a raid last week. They were given 250,000 rupiah in compensation, but this was only a quarter of their value, he said.

Thousands of other drivers are rural workers who became unemployed at the start of the Asian economic crisis and moved to Jakarta to drive becaks when the law banning them was revoked in 1998.

But the ban was quickly re-introduced after protests from city councillors. The council wants the vehicles banned because they clog up the streets and encourage rural drivers to migrate to Jakarta.

Ms Wardah, however, alleged that the crackdown on the pedicab drivers is merely a ruse to win more funds – the Jakarta council got 1.3 billion rupiah earlier this year to confiscate 3,000 becaks.