Yogyakarta’s historic Malioboro Street had it all — food, snacks, shopping and a place for locals and tourists to pass some time, weaving through horse carriages and onto the shady pedestrian street packed with colourful stalls.
But in January last year, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, governor of the Indonesian province of Yogyakarta, announced the relocation of the more than 1,800 street traders who had been a staple of the street since 1976. The sultan told local media the land belonged to the government and the move was 18 years in the making.
The traders on Malioboro Street were an iconic Yogyakarta cultural tourist attraction. By March 2022, they had all relocated to two new areas despite the prospect of much lower revenues and hotter temperatures under corrugated roofing.
