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Friday
Jumat, 11 Januari 2019
Situasi di Jalan Komando Raya berjalan seperti biasa, ramai oleh aktivitas jual beli dan makan siang. Selepas shalat Jumat, dinaungi cuaca yang cerah, hampir semua warteg, warung padang, es kelapa, gorengan, dan sate di tepi Jalan Komando Raya penuh dengan antrian pelanggan. Namun situasi yang nampak normal tersebut kini dibayang-bayangi oleh kecemasan para pedagang tentang masa depan mata pencaharian mereka, bahkan yang telah berjualan sejak belasan tahun yang lalu.
Seperti halilintar, kabar yang tidak menyenangkan tiba-tiba datang ke paguyuban pedagang Karet RT04 RW02 pada Rabu yang sebelumnya; dalam waktu dekat mereka tidak diizinkan untuk berdagang di tepi Jalan Komando Raya efektif terhitung mulai Senin tanggal 14 Januari 2019. Meski terkejut, Bu Mia dengan tenang mengumpulkan semua anggota paguyuban, termasuk tokoh-tokoh warga RT 04 membahas strategi menghadapi kondisi terkini. Apakah mereka masih bisa berdagang di lokasi yang sama di hari Senin nanti? Jika harus pindah, apakah tempat baru akan sama ramainya? Berapa lama sampai akhirnya nanti mereka diharuskan pindah lagi ke tempat lain?
Seorang pegawai kantoran perempuan yang sempat kami wawancara mengatakan “Saya biasa makan disini karena lokasinya dekat dan penyajiannya cepat. Saya ga mungkin kalo harus makan di restoran tiap hari”. Lalu tiga pegawai kantoran laki-laki yang juga nampak kebingungan berujar “Kita sih senengnya makan siang disini, makanannya enak dan bisa sambil ngerokok!”.
Sedangkan seorang Office Boy / OB perempuan (atau harusnya kita panggil Office Girl?) dengan nada optimis mengatakan “Untung saya punya nomor penjualnya, udah langganan, jadi kalo dia pindah nanti saya bisa tau lokasinya”. Satu orang lagi yang kami wawancara pun menyampaikan “Saya setuju sih kalo mereka ditertibkan supaya jalanan ga macet, tapi mudah-mudahan mereka dapat lokasi pengganti yang nyaman dan tidak jauh dari kantor ini”.
Sabtu, 12 Januari 2019
Hampir seluruh perwakilan paguyuban pedagang dan warga berkumpul di lantai dua sebuah restoran padang yang sengaja ditutup untuk rapat akbar ini. Mereka bersepakat untuk memindahkan kegiatan usaha yang tergusur dari Jalan Komando Raya ke sebuah gang warga bernama “Gang Z”. Selain karena lokasinya masih dekat dengan perkantoran, gang tersebut juga tidak dilalui oleh kendaraan bermotor, sehingga para pelanggan nantinya bisa makan dengan aman dan nyaman. Mereka pun telah membuat sebuah konsep desain tentang penempatan dan pembagian ruang dagang di tempat baru tersebut.
Namun ada satu masalah yang muncul, di sepanjang kiri dan kanan gang tersebut terdapat pagar halaman parkir motor yang dikelola oleh sebuah perusahaan besar. Markas perusahaan ini berada di salah satu tower yang masih masuk ke dalam Kelurahan Karet. Dengan niat menjaga hubungan baik antar tetangga, mereka pun bersiap untuk menemui perwakilan pengelola gedung tersebut di hari Senin, 14 Januari 2019.
Senin, 14 Januari 2019
Pagi hari setelah sarapan, beberapa perwakilan paguyuban telah bersiap-siap untuk mengunjungi pengelola perusahaan besar tersebut. Mereka berkumpul terlebih dahulu di rumah Ibu Mia, baru kemudian berangkat bersama-sama ke kantor pengelola perusahaan. Sepanjang jalan, para pedagang yang menanti dengan cemas proses dialog yang akan berlangsung menyemangati rombongan/delegasi dengan doa dan kalimat-kalimat penyemangat.
Pada saat yang sama, penertiban lapak-lapak dagangan terus dilakukan secara mandiri maupun oleh Satpol PP di sepanjang Jalan Komando Raya. Suasana yang biasanya ramai oleh kegiatan sarapan dan makan siang kini menghilang. Disepanjang jalan ditemui beberapa orang yang nampak kebingungan. Seorang pegawai perempuan yang kami temui mengatakan “Kemana pedagang makanan langganan saya pergi ya? Padahal ga terlalu ngaruh juga, emang lebar jalanan-nya aja yang sempit, ga muat untuk dua arah mobil. Ga mungkin kalo saya makan di H*kb*n tiap hari, kan!”
Begitu rombongan/delegasi memasuki wilayah perkantoran, mereka melihat koridor komersial yang baru saja selesai dibangun dan diresmikan oleh pengelola gedung. Berderet di kiri kanan adalah restoran-restoran besar ternama, yang harga per menunya rata-rata beberapa kali lebih mahal dari harga menu yang biasa mereka jual di warung dan kios tepi jalan.
Pertemuan ternyata berlangsung singkat dengan hasil yang kurang membahagiakan. Pengelola gedung secara tegas menyatakan protes dan menolak usulan paguyuban untuk memindahkan ruang usaha pedagang kaki lima ke “Gang Z”. Kabar menyedihkan ini pun dibahas kembali dalam sebuah musyawarah besar yang dihadiri hampir seluruh perwakilan paguyuban dan tokoh-tokoh warga. Mereka merasa memiliki hak untuk menentukan pengelolaan “Gang Z” tersebut karena statusnya yang milik warga dan bukan bagian dari lahan perusahaan. Perwakilan paguyuban pun menemui instansi-instansi terkait untuk memperoleh dukungan.
Apakah perjuangan paguyuban pedagang kaki lima di bawah asuhan Ibu Mia akan berhasil ? Akankah dukungan dari instansi-instansi terkait diperoleh ? Lalu bagaimana dengan masa depan jajanan kuliner yang keberadaannya sangat dibutuhkan oleh ratusan hingga ribuan pegawai kantoran di sepanjang Jalan Komando Raya dan Jalan Jenderal Sudirman ini akan bertahan? Ikuti terus penelusuran kami di @rameramejakarta
____________________________________ (ENGLISH) A Weekend in the City
Friday
On jalan Komando Raya everything continued as normal; crowded with the lunchtime activities of buying and selling. After Friday prayers, under sunny skies the road was filled with queues of customers for warteg (Tegal buffet), nasi padang, es kelapa (chilled coconuts), gorengan (assorted fried snacks), and sate (satay). However, this seemingly normal state of affairs was overshadowed by the concern of the traders about the future of their livelihoods, particularly those who had relied on their small roadside businesses more than a decade.
Like a bolt from the cloudy sky, bad news had struck the community of traders in Kampung Karet’s fourth administrative division (RT04, RW02) the previous Wednesday; they would no longer be permitted to sell their wares on Jalan Komando Raya, effective Monday, 14th of January 2019. Despite her surprise, Bu Mia calmly gathered all the members of her community to discuss how to deal with the new reality. Would they still be able to sell in the same location come next Monday? If forced to relocate, would their customers still come? How long before they would finally move, and establish themselves in a new location?
A worker from the nearby office complex told RRJ “I normally eat here because it’s close to my office, and the service is fast. There’s no way I could eat in a restaurant every day.” “We like eating here,” a group of young men told us, after finishing a hot bowl of soup on their lunch break, “The atmosphere is nicer, the food is delicious, and we can enjoy a cigarette too.” All seemed confused to hear that it could be the traders’ last day.
An OB (so-called ‘office boy,’ despite being female) shared a more optimistic perspective; “Luckily I’ve got the number of the traders I use regularly, so if they have to move then I’ll be able to find out the new location easily.” Another interviewee agreed with the traders’ concerns, telling us “I agree with them trying to clean up the road space to deal with traffic, but hopefully they’ll get a new location that’s comfortable and not too far from the offices!”
Saturday
Almost all the representatives of the trader community gather on the second floor of one of the local Padang restaurants, which had been closed to facilitate the meeting. All agreed to relocate their business activities threatened with eviction from Jalan Komando Raya to one of the small passageways nearby known as ‘Gang Z.’ Other than the fact that it was close to the offices, and Gang Z is not used by vehicular traffic, leaving their customers to enjoy their food in peace. They had also already prepared a potential design concept for a small trading area at the site.
Unfortunately, a new problem arose for the traders and their plans; on either side of Gang Z were motorcycle parking areas owned by a major company. The company’s HQ is located in one of the towers which encroach into the space of Karet’s administrative district. With the intention to maintain a neighbourly relationship, Bu Mia prepared to meet with of the building management representatives on the following Monday.
Monday
After breakfast, several representatives of the trader community prepared to visit the building management. They gathered beforehand at Mia’s house, before departing as one to the offices opposite. Along the way, those traders waiting to hear the results of the dialogue about to take place enthusiastically encouraged the delegation as it passed, offering warm words of support.
As Mia and her traders headed for the building, municipal officers deployed on the street to ensure compliance with the notice delivered the previous week; no trading would take place by the roadside. The usual hustle and bustle of breakfast and lunch on jalan Komando Raya is gone, replaced by confused-looking people emerging from their offices in search of food. “Where did the traders go?” asked one young woman, “It hasn’t even made much difference. It’s a narrow street, right? I don’t think you can fit two cars down here at once anyway, and there’s no way I can eat H** B** every day…”
Entering the office complexes, the delegation encountered a different world just across the road from where they live and work; a newly inaugurated commercial corridor beneath the towers. On either side, restaurants of well-known brands display menus with food prices on average many times greater than those available on the streetside just metres away.
The meeting turned out to be less fruitful than Bu Mia and her traders had hoped. The building management explicitly stated their objection to the trader’s plans to relocate the small businesses to Gang Z. The bad news was relayed to the wider community, almost all of which assembled to find out what had happened. They felt they had a right to determine the future of Gang Z, given that the narrow strip itself falls within the local administration authority, and is not a part of the corporate land ownership. The community representatives decided to meet with a range of other related institutions to get support for their proposal.
Will the struggles of Bu Mia and her traders be successful? Will support from other authorities, local and otherwise, be granted? How about the future of the culinary delights, the very presence of which is so essential to hundreds if not thousands of office workers in the vicinity of Jalan Komando and Jalan Sudirman? Will they still be there in the future? Keep up with our ongoing coverage @rameramejakarta