Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Ahead of the campaign period for the July 5 presidential election, the Jakarta administration has begun a month-long campaign of its own to evict street vendors.

"The evictions are routine. Since we will have the presidential election campaign [beginning on June 1], we are carrying out selective evictions on small numbers of targets," said Jakarta Public Order Office head Soebagio over the weekend.

He added that about 4,000 public order officers would be deployed to help the police provide security in the capital during the campaign itself.

The agency will be targeting vendors operating in busy areas in the capital, including the main thoroughfare of Jl. Sudirman and the Sabang and Cikini areas of Central Jakarta.

Soebagio said his officers would not be rousting larger communities of squatters and vendors, like the squatters living beneath the Rawa Bebek overpass in North Jakarta or near the Otorita Batam office in Cawang, East Jakarta, because he wanted to avoid clashes.

A string of forcible evictions last year by the Public Order Office left more than 5,000 families homeless.

A chicken porridge vendor near the Dharmala Sakti building on Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta, Ibu Menik, recalled how she had to hurry her customers along last Friday morning, less than an hour after she opened, when dozens of public order officers pulled up near her cart.

She said she always had to be on the alert to avoid the officers swooping down on her and seizing her cart. "I don't know why the public order officers have begun sweeping for street vendors again," she told The Jakarta Post.

Ibu Menik is luckier than street vendors operating in front of the Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Cikini, Central Jakarta. "About 500 public order officers arrived in 40 pickup trucks last Monday. They took away my cigarette cart along with all the goods inside," said vendor Gondrong, 30. About 200 vendors lost their kiosks and goods in the operation.

"If there were fewer than 100 officers, we could have fought them. But we had to obey them because we were outnumbered," Gondrong said, adding that several officers returned the next day to confiscate those items they had missed the previous day.

Gondrong and dozens of other vendors staged a rally in front of the City Council several days later, demanding the officers return their belongings. "There was no prior notice about the raid even though each of the vendors pays a minimum of Rp 17,000 a month as a 'security fee' to Cikini subdistrict officials," one of the protesters said.

The chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum, Azas Tigor Nainggolan, called on the administration to stop the evictions. "I suspect that [Governor] Sutiyoso's administration is intentionally creating bad conditions in the city in order to undermine the people's support for the current [central] government," he said.

He alleged the evictions were related to efforts by Sutiyoso, a retired Army general, to increase support for his former Army colleagues in the upcoming presidential election. Three retired Army generals will take part in the presidential election.

"Please, remain neutral. The administration should not intervene in the political process. Instead, the administration must ensure that all residents can cast their votes," he said.