Dilemma of The Five Legs

Chicken porridge is one of my favorite dish and for the past 11 years I have them for breakfast on a regular basis be it when I was in Bandung until now in Jakarta. They are usually provided in some mobile food stalls ingeniously named kaki lima (five legs) patrolling across the streets from rural urban area to the shadow of skyscrapers in the central business districts, offering various kinds of food and drinks or even cigarettes and boozes.

The term Kaki Lima were given because some say that they seems to have five legs (if you count the owner’s) and seen from a distance. But another source argue that Kaki Lima was a phrase given to the five feet pavement between the building and streets in the city which were supposedly for people walking. Now this is where the dilemma begins, as I ponder the fact that my favorite chicken porridge stall has moved his dolly near a garbage shoot. I was slightly reluctant eating my albeit delicious dishes amongst sea of flies and the invigorating smell of landfill site.

As the nature of kaki-limas to operate in a lane where it is theoretically reserved for other functions, they’re often deemed as an intrusion for the public facility and city regulation. Another point is that, most area in Jakarta still has no proper sewage system, while the habit of these kaki-limas is to chuck their waste to the gutter and is one of the contributors for the clog in sewers all around the city, though not necessarily the sole reason of flooding in Jakarta if rainy season comes.

Because of the aforementioned grounds, several times a week there are inspection and raid held by the city taskforce to the thousands of kaki-limas. Occasional corruption happens here, where as a opposed to being chased like animals, the kaki-limas just offered bribes for the officer so that they walk away with their notorious loudspeaker. This is very unfortunate for the kaki-limas because even though they have bribe one task force the other would follow suit, yet still there is no guarantee that they could operate everyday, especially when the big fishes, aka the really important officials (minister or president) pass their street. Illusion that everything still clean and under control is still the best option for these bootlicker officials.

Some of the raids was totally inhumane though, I even saw it with my own eyes how these people were hunted down and kicked, their cart and dolly was shredded apart, or taken custody as a ransom for some large sum of money. Beauty versus poverty, what a pity. I know it is important to have a beautiful city, yet it’s been widely known that majority of the Jakarta citizen is poor. And I really believe that kaki-limas could be one of the solution to increase independency and entrepreneurship amongst the people. Last year alone thousands of new unemployment flog the city and it’s better for them to become small entrepreneur than beggars or even thieves.

I realize that it is not been easy, for example if you have a five feet pavement along the street, all five feet will be filled with cart and dollies if a certain measure not taken. Plenty of traffic jam has been caused by the expansions of these informal sector, yet from my observation, this is the fruit of the government’s policy to only pay attention in building malls and plaza for bigger business yet ignoring city plan for smaller enterprises and ventures which proven to be of a much larger quantity and in correlation with larger scale of population.

Middle class citizens like me can only afford eating regularly in the streets. You try to look away when they wash their platters hastily in a suspect looking bucket near the gutter. Or pay no attention when the piece of cloth they use to clean the dish fall to the brownish paving below, but find it hygienic enough to still use it. I remember at early weeks I stayed in Jakarta having to endure plenty of food poisoning before I became immune to them nasty germs. Hopefully no long terms effect damaging my poor sensitive stomach.

Dang, I’m gonna have to find me a new chicken porridge.