By Cipto R.
JAKARTA — On August 30, Indonesia's second biggest city, Surabaya, was brought to a halt when drivers of the huge numbers of public transport small vehicles went on strike. Indonesia's public transport system relies on various kinds of small vehicles, converted sedans and station wagons to carry a big proportion of passengers. Surabaya went dead for 24 hours. But no newspapers carried any reports of what was happening or why. Strangely only the private television station owned by President Suharto seemed to dare put it in as a news item.
The drivers were protesting over the daily hire they must pay to the owners. A driver must pay RP 40,000 (A$27) per day to the owner no matter how much they actually collect from passengers. On average a driver who works 14 or 15 hours a day will take Rp 42,000-45,000 per day, leaving the driver with the tiny amount of 2,000 — 5,000 ($1.25-$3.35) per day. In cities such as Surabaya or Jakarta such an income is hardly enough for two meals a day.
The strike was finally ended when the military was called in by the owners to disperse the rallying strikers. The company also made promises to increase the drivers income — without stipulating when or how.
A few days later Jakarta was also hit by a 12-hour drivers strike, again involving the drivers of the public transport small vehicle sector as well as bus drivers.
Bus drivers working for the Jakarta Transport Company went on strike because they were being forced to hand over the total receipts taken by the buses. Their actual contract with the company stated that the owner should receive Rp 140,000 ($90) per day with driver and conductor (if there is one) keeping what was left over. The company claimed, however, that the workers were also getting tips and undeclared fares. The workers denied this and demanded that the company keep to its contract.
At the same time, small vehicle drivers went on strike because some bus companies were offering fares to school children cheap fares below the official fare, thus undercutting the usually lower fares that the small car transport system is able to provide. Given the tiny margins that drivers try to live of any loss of passengers can leave the drivers without any income at all, while the hire system means that owners' income is relatively secure.
Days later drivers in Bandung went on strike for two days as tension developed between competing companies over route rights. Officials are selling route rights in such a way that there are too many vehicles for the system. Again the tight margins for drivers who are forced to pay very high vehicle hire results ion them being pitted against each other in a mad scramble just to king drivers were dispersed by the military.
This general situation of drivers being squeezed has also been worsened by the government's recent moves to increase its collection of old and new taxes as its old sources of income from oil royalties have diminished. Annual registration taxes on vehicles have been increased, for example.
In September a new law will brought into force providing fines on drivers' whose vehicles break down on the street or which do not live up to various technical standards. This will worsen the position of drivers even more. Firstly, as well as paying the daily hire to the company, drivers are also responsible for the maintenance of the vehicles. Secondly, these new traffic laws will give the police and other monitoring authorities to harass drivers for bribes and fines over and above the stipulated amount — already a common practice in relation to most bureaucratic procedures.
Government statements, including that by the Minister of Communications, that "fines should be as high as possible" are only creating an atmosphere that will foster rip-offs.