Thoughts on Beggars Crackdown in Jakarta

Every year come Ramadhan time, thousands of poor people from around Indonesia come to Jakarta to beg for money. There are two reasons: Jakarta is the economic capital of Indonesia where the per-capita-income is highest in the nation. Second, Ramadhan is a time where all Muslims are encouraged to think about the less fortunate.

The increase of beggars around this time is quite noticeable. You start seeing a lot of them on the streets with their carts, often spread out pretty evenly along a stretch of a street. They come (and leave Jakarta) around the same time, possessing almost uniform-looking carts, and you wonder how they can be this organized. The answer is, of course, they are organized by panhandling syndicates (it’s not unlike the story in Slumdog Millionaire, although I can’t comment on any deliberate mutilation). More on this later.

The story is that this year, Jakarta city authority is cracking down on beggars based on a 2007 law (Perda 08 Tahun 2007 tentang Ketertiban Umum) that makes it illegal to beg on the streets and to give to beggars. Violators are punishable for up to US$2,000 and jailed for up to two months.

The first thing that came to my mind was: How in hell did the 2007 law came to pass? A quick search on Google News reveals that there have been debates about the legitimacy of the law since the latter part of 2007 and that it has been enforced mostly around Ramadhan time in 2008 and now in 2009. Plenty of time has passed since 2007, and yet the city is still busy cracking down on beggars like it’s Groundhog Day. This year, the city also started to implement fines on people. As reported by The New York Times:

Thirteen days into Ramadan, Jakarta had rounded up 1,465 beggars, most of them women and children, almost all from outside Jakarta. For the first time, the authorities are also going after those caught giving to beggars, though they have fined only 12 people so far.

It’s clear that the Jakarta city authority is guilty of one sin that is very common in Indonesia: inconsistency. The law is observed 365/24/7, not just around Ramadhan time. If you want to train people, you do it consistently. If begging for money is a crime, catch it every time it occurs.

The beggars who got caught are then sent to shelters/social institution before being sent back to outside Jakarta (maybe “thrown out” is more accurate term). According to The Jakarta Post:

Public order officers had twice arrested and put Wawan into the Social Institution in Kedoya. […]

Once Wawan was separated from his wife for weeks after public order officers arrested her. The administration then sent her, along with others, to regional Java. “She was sent to Comal. If you say you were from Central Java, they will send you to Comal, even if that’s not your town,” Wawan said.

Wawan said in the Kedoya shelter, the arrested beggars would sometimes be in the same cells as other petty criminals […] adding that the officers locked up a wide range of people, from 3-in-1 jockeys who used to be thugs, to homeless people and sex workers.

The shelters are not the preferred place for the beggars. They view them as penitentiary. The city authority is in fact treating beggars like criminals. I guess by the definition of the law, they are criminals. However, is this the way we want to treat poor people in Jakarta?

Back to the panhandling syndicate, The Jakarta Globe reports:

[Budihardjo, head of Jakarta Social Welfare Agency] said investigations into the syndicates were ongoing.

“There are six people we suspect of coordinating the beggars, but we still need to monitor them and investigate further,” he said.

How hard is it to track down these syndicates? You put a tracker to catch them when they bus the beggars in and out of begging areas at sun up and sun down — Done! These syndicates have been operating for years. It’s not like the city just found out about this operation. This tells me that the city is more serious about catching beggars off the streets than going after the big fish. I suppose it’s a lot easier to catch the poor and the hungry because they don’t have the energy to run away.

I implore the Jakarta city authority to have a more graceful solution to this problem. Right now they are using a superficial solution (i.e. take beggars off the street to beautify the city) to a fundamental problem (i.e. poverty). The fact is, people with extra income want to give and donate to the poor. Why not invest some effort in creating a donation channel? Why not improve the condition of the social institutions the way they are intended: shelters for those without food and housing? There are many more creative ways to help the poor without treating them like criminals.

Final note: I don’t live in Indonesia and I wouldn’t be surprised if you tell me I’m totally wrong. Let me know your opinions and what I missed out in the comments. Thanks.

Photo credit to The Jakarta Post