MDGs As My Development Goals

MDGs as My Development Goals
Edited by Puthut EA
First published 2010 INFID English Version
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Writers Editors Proofreader Photographers Translators Design and Layout Anwar Jimpe Rahman, EM Ali, Ishak Salim, Wendy Bullan Puthut EA Henri Myrtinnen Idealita Ismanto, Ape Djami Luisa Bahagijo, Leni Betinni Achnas, Dian Utami Putri, Octavia Pramita Purwaningtyas : Paragraph Studio : : : : :
Indonesia library cataloguing in publication data MDGs as My development goals, written by Anwar JR., et al., edited by Puthut EA, Jakarta INFID. 1. MDGs, Indonesia-Case Studies ISBN: 978-979-8811-04-3
Address: Jl. Jatipadang Raya Kav. 3 No. 105 Pasar Minggu, Jakarta Selatan 12540 Indonesia T. +62 21 7819734 F. +62 21 78844703 E. ind@ind.org W. www.ind.org
Table of Contents
05
Table of Contents
07
Acknowledgement
09
Preface: MDGs as My Development Goals

By Don K. Marut
19
Ongoing Suffering of Displaced People

By Ishak Salim
31
The Magma Woman in Samosir

By Anwar Jimpe Rachman
45
Making Imprints in the Sand

By EM. Ali
59
Batu Putih Junction and the Nyong of Soe

By Ishak Salim
69
The Brave Woman in Lapindo Embankment

By EM. Ali
83
Spirit of Service in the Savanna

By Ishak Salim
93
The Failing Life of a Juki Cilik

By Ishak Salim
103
Questions that Remain Unanswered for Tanjung Luars Fishing Community

By Ishak Salim
113
After Teak, Corn Flourishes

By EM. Ali
129
Hanging the Weighing Scale for the Future

By Wendy Bullan
141
Women Resisting the Tidal Water

By EM. Ali
Acknowledgement
he idea of this book came from some reections with farmers, indigenous peoples, womens groups in several places in Indonesia when INFID wrote citizens report of MDGs achievement since 2006. The reection came out with a statement that Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a program is elitist and externally driven. Local initiatives are not counted as capital for boosting the achievement of MDGs. The lack of ownership of MDGs by the poor and the local communities is obvious from the programs and policy measures taken by the government and other actors. Therefore those who are involved in the reections propose to expose the never-ending eorts and initiatives of the local people, both individuals and collectivities, to achieve their own development goals. We express our whole-hearted gratitude to all those who took part in the writing of the stories, particularly the owners of the stories. The stories cannot be made in writing without the hard works of the writers and photographer. We would like to express our deep-hearted gratitude to the writers and the photographer. Anwar Jimpe, EM Ali, Ishak Salim and Wendy Bulan have spent months with the owners of the stories. Idealita Ismanto (Dea), the photographer, captured the stories in pictures. Her tiresome eorts have resulted in the valuable self-telling pictures. Dea did not only
become photographer but also a friend for the owners of the stories. We would like to thank to Puthut EA who has put all the stories in appropriate format as Editor for Indonesian version. We express our gratitude to Henri Myrtinnen, who in his way to East Timor, was stopped to help edit some of the stories in English version. We would like to thank our colleagues in Trocaire South East Asia, Oxfam Australia, ICCO South East Asia, and Development and Peace (D&P) Canada for their supports that make this eort come true. We would like to express our special gratitude to Jess Agustin who always reminds us about local initiatives and local autonomy as the backbones of sustainable development, which also inspired the writing of this book. We also express our special appreciation to Pak Priyo Budi Asmoro from Oxfam Australia who had contributed with guiding questions for the writers and photographer during their eld works. We also would like to express our special thanks to all sta in the Secretariat of INFID who have dedicated to nalize this project, especially Suwarno, Nikmah, Tyas, Jeckson, Misna, Yaya and Ani.
Preface

Don K. Marut
he United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit just ended in September 2010. It was a special summit to commemorate the 10th years of the Millennium Declaration. All countries, particularly the developing and poor countries, submitted reports to the summit regarding the progresses of the achievements of MDGs, what the countries have been doing and whether they will be able to achieve the targets in 2015. The develop counties also reported about the realization of their pledge to provide 0.7% of GNI of their countries for supporting poverty eradication in the developing and poor countries. The MDGs is a global commitment made by all members of United Nations to promote the wellbeing for all. The MDGs consist of 8 goals that represent the most fundamental requirements for peoples better life. MDGs are seen as the most comprehensive and practical guidance that includes human rights perspectives: civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights, child rights, womens rights, indigenous peoples rights, and the rights of the disabilities. It has been anticipated that the governments would report with optimism the progresses they have made to achieve MDGs. While most governments reported the progress in the achievements of MDGs, there is still pessimism
that MDGs will be achieved in 2015. UN Agencies, International Financial Institutions, International Civil Society organizations and national CSOs also submitted reports in several meetings parallel to the UN Summit. UN Agencies and CSOs had dierent stories about the achievement of MDGs, which, as the regular reports have exposed, saw the achievements with pessimism and called for more systematic eorts to achieve the targets. There are at least three fundamental problems that might become the obstacles to the achievement of MDGs. Solving the problems might help boost the achievement in the next ve years. The three fundamental problems include ownership and participation of the poor, and coherence in policy and program implementation.
Ownership is the key:

MDGs in general are still seen as the governments projects, short-term, and seem to be externally driven that are detached from the peoples needs and rights. After ten years since its declaration MDGs have not been internalized as the development goals of the people. Particularly for the goals 1 to 7, which are actually the problems of daily life of the poor in general, they have not been attached to the poors agenda. It has been widely recognized
that for development to be successful the beneciaries have to have certain level of ownership. The programs have to come from the people or if the people have limited knowledge or understanding of what they are facing in their life they need to be accompanied or provided with certain level of awareness of the problems they are and will be facing. Ownership is often undermined by most of the development planners and practitioners, both states and non-state. Development in reality is owned by the actors, and not by the beneciaries; hence the goals are also made not by the people or beneciaries of the policies and programs but by the development actors living outside of the peoples living grounds. An indigenous peoples leader in Kei Besar Island, Maluku, once stated that indigenous peoples are not against development. What they are against is the development that is externally designed and driven that is not in line with the needs, the rights and the visions of the people. Each community has its own history and they live in and develop their community based on the vision they formulate and test through long historical trajectory. Therefore development should be in line with the vision the people have developed; and if the vision is not in line with that of the members of wider society or the nation, democratic consultation processes are the best vehicle to reconcile the dierent or conicting visions. MDGs seem to have no conict with the peoples needs and rights. The substances and targets in MDGs are relevant with the peoples needs and rights. It would be more instrumental and plausible if MDGs are integrated in the peoples daily actions, rather than separating them from the peoples actions. Separating MDGs and all the measures to achieve them
from the peoples needs, rights and collective actions will only bring MDGs o the track, and only contribute to the strengthening of the project-seeking behavior of the ocials, donors and other development actors. Hence it will become new dreams of the people, but new opportunities for certain groups to enrich themselves on the burdens of the poor. The government of Indonesia in fact had well responded and strategized the development measures in quite transformative ways by issuing the Law No. 25/2004 on the national development planning that mandates a bottom-up planning mechanisms. This has been implemented through the mechanisms of the Deliberations of Development Planning (Musyawarah Perencanaan Pembangunan Musrenbang) that starts from village level to national level on annual basis. If this process and mechanisms are genuinely implemented or its implementation is based on the policy texts as mandated by the law, development programs should have been designed and responding to the needs and rights of the people. There should not be any more problems of poverty that are left out of the touch of development programs. The planning process, however, is still treated as project by the implementers, not as the genuinely substantive bottom-up planning. It becomes more ceremonial rather than substantive. When the planning processes ignore its own substance, development will neglect and undermine ownership by the people, and even to some extent it is alienated from the people. Worse than that development does not only not respond to the peoples needs but rather eliminate the peoples genuine economic initiatives and the peoples rights to development. In two studies conducted by INFID in 2007 (Kecamatan Development
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Project KDP) and 2010 (on PNPM Program National Pemberdayaan Masyarakat National Program for Community Empowerment) it was revealed that the projects implemented by the government and supported by international donors that are intended to alleviate poverty even destroyed the fundamentals of the peoples initiatives that threaten the future sustainability of livelihood of the local communities. The programs were imposed to the people without accommodating the local needs and capacities. It has been emphasized by hundreds of ocial declarations and statements that ownership of development is the key to the success of development. Indonesia in fact has notable best practices and success stories of programs where ownership and genuine participation of the people become the key factors. Posyandu, PKK (the Family Welfare Movement) and Family Planning are among the best practices inherited from the past. Posyandu can be maintained by the people, particularly women, not only because it responds directly to the needs of the people but mainly it has been owned by the people. The people still maintain Posyandu using their own available resources and with voluntary spirit. In Gunung Kidul, Central Java, the head of the district announced the Posyandu as the public theatre for village development, to integrate all projects through the Posyandy mechanisms. This does not only maximize the mechanisms that are familiar and owned by the people, but also promote gender equality: men also participate in Posyandu. Women at community level hold PKK as their organization and the space for them for selfempowerment. At present people are longing for family planning program that had given appropriate information not only on how to reduce birth rate, but also for capacity
development in mother and child care and household economy. There are programs that have been proved to be successful because the people bear the ownership of the program. The program engages directly with the peoples needs and rights, and hence they are able to manage the whole process. It is sad that the government and donors introduce new projects by undermining the success stories of the past programs; each development actors concentrates on how to secure their own funds and projects. Ownership by the people is also neglected in development planning and development program implementation. MDGs, then, become ceremonies of the elites and public gures, while the poor are not involved or alienated from MDGs itself. Ownership is also threatened by power struggle or project struggle among the ministries and government institutions.
Genuine Participation
Ownership will motivate the participation of the people, and in fact the people participate proactively in development to solve their livelihood issues when they have the sense of ownership of the development actions. Therefore participation is not merely an instrument in development practice but it should be the norms imbedded in the whole process of development, from planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation as well as in enjoying the results of development equally and equitably. Denis Goulet in his famous book The Cruel Choice had noted very well that optimum participation should become a norm for development strategy. According to him if this kind of participation is not extended and genuinely implemented, development will hinder the peoples eorts for achieving their
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human dignity and their fundamental freedoms, including freedom from manipulation in development process. Participation has almost become a sacred word for development planners and practitioners, both small and big scales. The meaning of the term, however, is dierent from one individual/organization to the other individuals/ organizations. When this term appeared among the series of development jargons in 1950s many activists and development practitioners accommodate the term with high expectations and pride. The activists and development practitioners expected that the participative strategies and approaches could eliminate the top-down approaches that were not only expensive and ineective, but also dehumanizing. Even the World Banks executives and the donor countries quickly adopted the approach as the conditional requirements in providing aid to developing and poor countries. But in practice, participation and participatory approaches are interpreted based on the intentions of the donors/creditors with the projects they supported. Participation is then used as tool for legitimating certain projects, although the projects are controversial, against human rights and do not fulll the needs of the people. Participation, by the ruling elites and their nancial supporters, is utilized tool for legitimacy for governments policies and actions. Participation lost its meaning. Participation is always related to power. Those who hold power, whether formal or informal, use participation as tool for mobilizing supports or to maintain the establishment of the power holders. On the other hand the people and those who are working on the side of the people, assume that the main purpose of participation is to obtain power, namely the power that is supposed to be the ownership of the poor
and the oppressed. Therefore the peoples participation is intended to take back the power that has been long taken away and used by the ruling elites, including by certain intellectuals. This kind of peoples participation includes four functions, namely: cognitive function, social, instrumental and political functions.1 Participation has cognitive functions since it is intended to promote discourse and praxis of development, where the main discourse and knowledge should represent the cultural inheritance of the people, or the peoples knowledge system. Politically, participation is intended to strengthening the position of the poor and oppressed; while instrumentally participation is expected to provide alternative views and answers for the people regarding the failures of development. Participation also has social functions namely to provide direct benets to the people who are involved in the development activities. The social, political and instrumental functions of participation have been often used as reference by the development practitioners in rural areas, where the results are indicated from self-reliant community, self-sucient community, etc. But the participation to promote alternative discourse and to strengthen local knowledge creation and knowledge system is almost untouched, whereas the substance of the hegemony and oppression of the poor, particularly in rural areas, is rooted in the control of the discourse and knowledge that the oppressed have to use and that eliminates local
Majid Rahnema, Participation, dalam Wolfgang Sachs,ed., The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power, London and New Jersey: Zed Books,1992, hal.121-122.
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initiatives hence threatens the fundaments of their livelihood sustainability. The local knowledge and wisdoms are often treated as out-fashioned and against development. The development practitioners (governments, donors, NGOs, etc.) ignore the fact that it is this knowledge and wisdom that make the people survive and invent strategies, techniques and technologies to sustain their life as individuals and as communities. Genuine participation only can be promoted, and hence contribute to the success of development including MDGs, if the activities or programs are in line with and based on the fundaments of local initiatives, knowledge, wisdoms and local capacities.
mechanisms or opportunities and spaces for all concerned in lling gaps. One of the sources of policy and program failures in the last 10 years is the incoherence in policies and program actions. Policies set by one ministry are incoherent with the policies from other departments, even among the ministries under one coordinating ministry. This aects the incoherence in policies and programs at districts and provincial governments. There are abundant examples on this matter. The public media and government elites refer these issues as egosectoral, and often charge it on the incapacities of local governments. In fact, political leadership in the ministries in central government and the rent-seeking behavior of the bureaucrats and politicians are also among the main causes. This is not an easy task in an environment where politics becomes more pluralistic and have competing interests regarding development programs and budgets. This is not also easy when there is still push and pull between the central government and local governments. The policy documents such as the Medium-term Development Plans and the Annual Development Plans have been actually made to some extent in a good coherence framework, but in its implementation the coherence is often neglected. Musrenbang (Musyawarah Perencanaan Pembangunan - the Deliberative Process of Development Planning), for example, is a transformative process seen from its main text in the law of national development planning. In practice, Musrenbang is used only to get legitimacy of what the government ocials and the consultants have designed for the next years development programs. Ideas and recommendations from the local communities are hardly accommodated in development
Coherence in Policies and Program Implementation

The third fundamental problem that might hinder the achievement of MDGs, in Indonesia particularly and might be elsewhere is coherence among policies and implementation of the policies and programs. One of the main sources of development failures (in terms that the development programs did not perform) is the incoherence in policy and institutional framework. Policy coherence includes the systematic promotion of mutually reinforcing policies across government departments and agencies creating synergy towards achieving the dened goals. Dierent policies and agencies work together in ways that result in more powerful tools and products for all concerned. By developing policy coherence there would be synergies and complementarities between dierent policy areas to meet common and shared objectives. To boost development and eorts to achieve MDGs targets there should be
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program. The worse thing is that certain programs undertake their own Musrenbang separate from the Musrenbang for the national development planning, which strengthen the conclusion that this Musrenbang is more as a ceremony and a project of the implementers rather than for accommodating the peoples needs and rights in development process. PNPM (Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat National Program for Community Empowerment) , supported by the World Banks funds and consultants, conducts its own Musrenbang. This raises some questions of who the PNPM is for. Why PNPM is not integrated in the national development plan that has been developed based on the bottomup consultations? By conducting its own Musrenbang, it is clear that PNPM is for the implementers, and not for the beneciaries. PNPM is for the creditors and not for the debtors. PNPM was designed as short-term project based on the length of the contracts of the sta and consultants in the creditor agencies, rather than based on how long a program can be implemented to ensure poverty reduction, and to achieve MDGs. The local governments in Yogyakarta, in a joint consultation on aid and development eectiveness in July 2010, complained that the national programs often are not matched with the priorities made by the local government, both in objectives of the programs and in funding aspects. PNPM was mentioned as the main case. PNPM requires matching funds from the local governments, while PNPM projects come down at the time when the local budgets have been decided by the parliament and have been allocated for each program and project. It is very dicult for the local governments to take new budget or re-allocate the xed budget just because they have to follow the decisions
from the PNPM National Committee. As a result, many local governments could not implement PNPM in a year and have to wait for another year and so on. Besides incoherence in its implementation, there is also fundamental incoherence in the meaning of empowerment embodied in PNPM program. The World Bank assumes empowerment as strengthening process of the people (local communities) in order that they are able to participate directly in market mechanism and reduce state intervention, while the government of Indonesia based on the mandate of the Constitution dene empowerment as a process for promoting capacities of the local communities to be more able to manage their resources for their prosperity.2 The creditor undermines local social capital and capacities, while the government is still dreaming of a strong local social capital. The incoherence in the meaning of the terms, particularly when the control of the program is in the hand of the creditor, could bring the program not only to conicting purposes but also to fatal failure. The failure might means the loss of power for government, but a new opportunity for new loans for creditor and new job security for the sta and consultants in the creditor agency. Incoherence in implementation of projects that have the same objectives of achieving MDGs targets to some extent even eliminate the objectives of other programs. The development of rural infrastructures without considering environmental aspects, such as rural roads that
See the development of discourse of participation and empowerment in Andrea Cornwall, Beneciary, Consumer, Citizens: Perspectives on Participation for Poverty Reduction, Sida Studies No.2, 2002
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contribute to landslides in slope areas, maybe contribute to the opening of isolation so that the people can have better and easy access to health services, but it will destroy environment that support the conservation of water for the local consumptions. The construction of concrete pavements in villages without considering the sewage channels even create spots for breeding for malaria mosquitoes and sources of diarrhea for the local people. Incoherence can be caused by lack of ownership and participation of the local communities of the programs and policies. Coherence should include several aspects: the meaning or discourse, policies, and the implementation of the policies in terms of development programs. To ensure the coherence from the meaning, policies to the program implementations, there should be strong leadership in the government that provides strong and authoritative guidelines and clear interpretations of meanings and discourses regarding the policies and their implementations in programs and projects. The guidelines should be inter-ministerial and from center to local governments oces, and the guidelines should be distributed and understood by the local communities who become the beneciaries of the policies and programs.
programs become more as political agenda and become projects in character rather than peoples agenda that accommodate the needs and the rights of the people. Promoting new projects while undermining the peoples rights to formulate their own development goals and their own economic, social and cultural measures will raise the question of whom the MDGs are for: for the government ocials and donors, or for the people? The stories exposed in this book show optimism for the people but challenges for development practitioners. There are some stories where there are interventions of development actors, government and NGOs; and some stories where the people show their own genuine initiatives to undertake their own measures to solve problems in their daily life individually and collectively. Some people reawaken after being hit by government programs, or are still under threats by transnational and national corporations. A woman in Toba Lake almost never stop working: in the farm together with her husband and children, at home weaving clothes for earning cash and for saving for customary ceremonies and educating her children. There is no sign of complain when prices of consumption goods increase and the school fees of the children hike and also the prices of customary ceremonies. These problems only make her work harder and in more time. The people in Kulon Progo, Yogyakarta, are facing the threats of being displaced and dispossessed from their land ownership by a transnational mining company cooperating with a company owned by the most powerful family in the Province. While challenging the corporations through negotiations, these people collectively and individually intensively utilize
The stories of the People who own development goals

MDGs have been recognized as practical guidance for the governments to improve the quality of life of the people, and hence the prosperity of the people. Many policy measures and programs have been launched to accelerate the achievement of MDGs. The problem is that MDGs with the policy measures and
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the lands for horticulture. The incomes from the horticulture proves that they are able to be better o and live sustainably rather than if the mining companies take over their lands and displace the people to other places. Rich forest, poor people is not only an academic hypothesis. It describes facts in Java, particularly in the villages located around the teak forests owned by the government forestry companies. The values and richness of the teak forests do not reect in the real life of the local communities who are living in destitution. Most of people living around forests in Java are often living in unsecure situation because of being accused as thieves of leaves or branches of teak woods. When the teak wood company allowed the local communities in Grobogan to use the land after the teak woods are cut, it was accepted as blessing by the local communities and they start planting horticulture. The people who originally came from East Timor after the independence of the country had no better choice except digging manganese in Belu district, West Timor. All families from children to grandparents involved in digging and collecting manganese from the lands owned by the local Belu people. They used to becoming refugees, but now the government of Indonesia called them as new citizens to avoid continues social and economic supports to these people. They have the same rights and obligations as those originally living in the district, except that they have no rights to land. Some people understand that digging manganese with bare hands and without masks in dusty lands might be harmful for their health particularly for the children and elderly. But they have no better choice for supporting their livelihood. The question is what if the manganese nished? They continue digging the soil as far as the owners allow them to do so.
Ibu Maria in Sumba never complains about the hard work she is doing as a primary school teacher. She has to teach two classes in one classroom, while at the same time she had to take care of her own baby. The limited facilities in terms of books do not discourage her to do her job. It becomes challenge for her how to ensure that the children have at least the same level of knowledge of the subjects as those in the good schools. Other stories also show how the individuals and collectivities at local communities are struggling with their own available resources to promote their welfare, and to achieve their own set goals. If the governments and creditors are openminded and have conscience about the peoples needs and rights, and their own knowledge creation and capacities, MDGs can be achieved. If the spirits of these people are counted in development process, and if their voices heard in the development processes, and if their goals are integrated in the programs and policies to achieve Millennium Development Goals, MDGs as having been set out in the Millennium Declaration will be achieved faster and will be improved in the future. The question is: are the development practitioners (government, donors and CSOs) willing to recognize and integrate the Development Goals of the Poor into their development agenda and development program implementation framework?
Jakarta, 6 September 2010
Don K. Marut Executive Director of INFID
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Children have to walk for 6 kilometers to fetch clean water. It is very dicult for them to go to toilet near the manganese mining because of lack of water. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Ongoing Suffering of Displaced People

By Ishak Salim
er lips were red like roses. When she spat out, it too was red-rose liquid, but quickly dissolved in the soil of black carbon dust. Her hair was all white. The veil she was wearing was also white. But here and there, the hair and the veil were covered by black stains of carbon powder, as a result of hundreds of black-ngers strokes, because of the manganese rocks which consumed all her days in the place like this.
That grandmother, Martina (67), suddenly laughed hearing conversation of his grandson in Tetun language who was also scavenging manganese gravel right next to her. From inside her mouth, two colours can be seen; red and white. Betel nuts and areca she chewed gave red colour and in several teeth she had left indicated the white colour, similar to the ag of the country she chose to live in ten years ago, the Republic of Indonesia. In this area of manganese mines, in Sukaernaruk Village, Belu District, NTT, hundreds family of ex-Timor Leste refugees who had ed since the end of August 1999 were working. This area belonged to a good-hearted elementary school teacher in Oenari, Siprianus Wempimanek (42), who felt fortunate to realise that his plantation land contained tons of manganese. Coincidentally Siprianus was a good friend of Victor Bordes (45), one of the refugees who became a teacher in the same place. Victor reported that he had friends ready to mine the manganese Siprianus had on his land. Since Victors announcement on this new job for all residents in the village Fatuk Bot, District of South Atambua, NTT, came the rst 36 people who were ready to work. At rst, they did not immediately dig the mine, but worked together to give way for a number of trucks that would transport manganese rocks later on. For two days they cut down trees as
The old woman kept digging for rocks along with her three grandchildren. Choosing manganese pebbles and collecting them one by one into her bucket and later her grandson would put them into a sack till it weighed 50 kilograms. One meter in front of her, a hole as deep as three meters had been excavated by a middle-aged man and two nyong (youths) with well-built bodies and black skin. Manganese which was embedded in the ground became more apparent. These people had imagined collecting kilograms of manganese. One by one shovels of soil mixed with manganese were thrown above right next to the grandmother and the toddlers. That was what they would dig and then separate the manganese pebbles from soil. The elders and toddlers were only able to scratch and take the manganese gravel. Those who had the strength chose to dig and pry the manganese in the ve holes they had dug for about one month.
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far as approximately one hundred meters and hardened the street with available equipment, such as machetes, crowbars, hoes, and shovels. These same tools would be used by them to mine for the next days. These refugees settled in the Usuulun village since the end of 2005, at a distance of about 10 kilometres from the location of manganese mine. Previously they lived in refugee camps of Lolowa block B which was inhabited by 97 families since 5 September 1999. They lived in a state of emergency and diculties ever since the day of evacuation. It was true that there was no bright day for these refugees. Every day was a struggle for a bit of rice. They were coee farmers who currently did not have a piece of land; they were like the birds which lost their wings to y in the sky. Since moving from hometown in Ailelo, Manusae, Maubesi, Dili, or elsewhere in Timor Leste because of the political conict they did not wish for, they just lived in emergency tents for years without a proper job and lived in a bad slum environment with poor physical and social infrastructure. Only armed with the existing capability, they were trying to get out of this evacuation disaster without expecting much help from the local government. They started to organize themselves according to their ability. It was Maia Jose dos Santos (51), one of people who pumped the spirit of Asuulun refugee families, helping these families to nd a way out of problems they faced. We need jobs and decent houses, said Jose expressing the spirit from seven years ago.
n 2001, the handling of refugees during the emergency phase was completed. Assistance for them became more limited. But the day could not wait and life went on according to the cycle of time. They then worked doing any kind of job to eat and to nance their childrens school. In circumstances where life was not feasible, without land and water for farming, families depended on their ability to nd a job. They worked doing whatever things for the four years of refuge in Lolowa. The important thing is not to steal. That was their principle as stated by Jose Maia dos Santos, who was married with eight children. Beginning in August 2005, when the demand for decent housing was so urgent, there appeared a desire to move out of refugee camps of Lolowa. The only hope came from the social workers of CIS Kupang. They helped these displaced families in building the residents consensus to purchase a parcel of land for houses to 48 families. At that time, local government was actually losing its importance in the eyes of these refugees. In early 2006, they began collecting money little by little to buy the land. Incidentally at that time, there was a mother from Belu, Martha Mada, who had a garden land sucient to accommodate 40 families with 40 houses sized 10-15 metersquares. With the help of CIS Kupang, the arrangement to move refugees to live in a more comfortable place began immediately. They, 40 refugee families, nally negotiated with land owner of this 57 X 79.60 meters of land. The price to be paid was seven million rupiahs and since then the whole families began working whatever they could for collecting money. Alas, when the time came to pay for the land, the money collected only amounted to Rp 4.050.000,- and they still had to pay the rest of it immediately for Rp 2.950.000,-. Fortunately,
***
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One of refugees from Timor Leste who showed us manganese composite that they usually as My Developmenta Goals MDGs take every day. Rp 1,000 for kilo of manganese blocks.
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(Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
Madam Martha was willing to accept the payment and the rest could be paid o later. The land was purchased then. With the bonds of diculties and spirit to defend their lives, they began clearing bushes and trees in the ground. Actually, this land was more like a garden that still had big trees and cassava plants so they had to work hard to clean and draw maps of their villages and homes. The size 10 x 15 meters was certainly not a large size of lands. It was only enough for a bedroom for wife and their daughters and a little of terrace. Of course, no ground was left for little plantations even though most of them were farmers. Farmers of course always needed a piece of land. And in here they could not nd that land. The phrase Will we eat today? was a question every morning. People then went to work with anything just because the new day kept rolling. Everyone should stand up and keep up the familys honor by not experiencing hunger. Not to mention the educational aairs of children. School dropout was a choice that could not be avoided due to high costs for daily transportation. For those who had some courage, walking for two hours every day was a dicult choice that had to be pursued. When there was some money left, then could use a ojek (motorcycle taxi). Some of them chose to become vegetable traders, selling produce purchased from Atambua and Lolowa market and sold them from door to door or on a crowded sidewalk. Others chose to be brick masons, well-diggers, clearing the grass in the garden or involved in the work of government infrastructure projects in certain villages. Since aid for them in 2001 was stopped, the role of government could hardly be felt anymore. Tears often dwelled in the eyes of Jose Maia dos
Santos who soon realized there was nothing left to be eaten by himself, his wife and children. They were like the outcasts in their own village as East Timorese people. In their little house, lived his wife named Saturlina Exposto (40), with four children, each named Jelia Maia (19), Leonito Maia (16), Marcelina Exposto (14), and Paul Maia (7). Now every one of them depends on manganese. His other children were no longer lived in the same house as they had married. Based on his experience how hard life was, Jose then saved penny by penny to buy two pigs which he raised until today. Once he received help in the form of 2 goats which he raised until they matured. These pigs and goats were kept, and even though his life became more dicult he never thought of selling them. The time would come to sell the livestock at the right moment. Apparently, these animals were an asset for the future of their children later in life, mainly to ensure continuity of education.
***
n June 19, 2010, the sound of a truck roared from the distance. The time was 13:00 pm eastern Indonesian time. In one tent, two dozen small children, boys and girls, were enjoying corn porridge served by Saturlina Exposto, wife of Jose Maia dos Santos. This was their rst meal since this morning where they woke up and immediately went to work picking up manganese pebbles. Similarly, for adults who soon would follow them for lunch. Their stomachs had been hungry since last night and this morning there was no food at all. They chose to eat only once a day. If there was dinner, then the spending would be
22
higher and the money they would bring home would be less. Not having any dinner was the most realistic option for them to obtain higher incomes. The truck began to enter the mining area where the miners were located. Sacks of manganese looked ready to be weighed and then placed on this truck with a capacity of 8 tons. However, because the roads were bumpy and climbing terrain, drivers would only take 4-5 tons. Once the weighing had started, the manganese owner would come to help the process of weighing. Each bag was limited to 50 kg only and after that this white plastic bag was stitched untidily and put into the truck. While the sacks were being loaded, the registrar, Francisco (42), would directly write in his worn book: name and amount of sacks of manganese that had been mined. For example, he wrote Ernesto, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50 and so on, until he wrote down some numbers to determine how many sacks he had. The collections of manganese for every adult so far are of the same weights; nobody cares about how the buyers weigh the collections. Apparently, there was no greed in them. Someone would stop collecting manganese when he felt it was enough and then allowing others to become the next collector in one hole. On average, they would collect 30-40 sacks a day and so far there were few nyong who had collected up to one ton of manganese. After weighing, the money would be in their hands right away. In a warehouse not far from the mining area, a manganese supplier named Rudi had been waiting, an Atambua Chinese. Although still a relatively young, 23 years old, he understood the manganese business. Siprianus Wempimanek was also selling his manganese here at a price of
Rp 1700,- per kilo. There were many landowners who sold it to Rudi and in Atambua, he was not alone, for there were 80-100 other suppliers who also bought from the owners of mines in Atambua: A Hui, a supplier from Kupang, and Mr. Cheng, Mr. Ma from China, Mr. Lee from Korea, and some from the Philippines, India, and Taiwan. By using his business logic, Rudi suspected there was actually only a single buyer, but he did not know who he was and where he was, but he used some of suppliers as direct purchasers. Price of manganese itself was better than the original price a few months ago which ranged from Rp 250 Rp 300 per kilo. Now the price of miners to the land owners has reached Rp 1000,- and landowners set prices around Rp 1.600 to Rp 1.700 to suppliers, and suppliers would sell it for between Rp 1.850 to Rp 2.250 per kilo to foreign buyers. For foreign buyers coming into Atambua, their presence was legal by using a business visa. Usually, these foreigners would no longer want to deal with the government such as permits (SKAB) and security issues or allotment for the police. For every buyer, Rudi always prepared some documents; the fees for several inuential police ocers and transport trucks to the port to be brought to Surabaya or elsewhere. By evening, all the miners would stop working. They immediately got ready to go into a dry river bed that still had a few puddles of water left in the early part of this dry season. It was quite far, about 20 minutes of climbing and downhill. On the way to the river, there were about ve points of manganese mining sites belonged to others. The miners were also ex-East Timorese refugees, only they were from other camps, such as Lolowa, Sukaernarut, Raknamo, Manusak, Oefeto, and others. They were already in this place, had settled more than three months and occasionally returned to their homes to save
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For Anastasia, one of refugees from Timor Leste, working in manganese mining is the only option for work that she can take to support her family. She could be in the mining area for a week to collect manganese as much as possible and bring home money for her familys daily needs. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
money and be back by the next morning to stay for a week or longer. Arriving at the river they then looked for puddles like a small pond, with a diameter of no more than 10 meters and a depth of only just the knee-high. Initially the water looked so clear and fresh to be enjoyed for bathing. But they were many and the water did not seem to ow. After a while, the water became turbid and then turned black from the manganese dust that was sticking to the skin and even embedded in it swept away. Soap foam on their bodies was just being rinsed in that pond which mixed with the manganese dust in that entire pool of water. But they did not care and did not need to care about it all. It is still a fortune for them to have this residual water rather than to leave it dry in the next few days when the drought is no longer be friendly. The boys were all naked and splashing water at their fellows while laughing. Men
would look for another pool which was higher up there and the women would go down to other puddles or pools which were more hidden. At one of the pools which had a diameter of 1 meter, there was source of water which continued to slowly provide fresh clear water. They covered it with gebang leaves every time they left the place. Here was where they brought their jerry cans to be lled with drinking water. Typically, each child would bring a jerry can of water to be brought into the tent and then being cooked for their drinking water. For those who were thirsty after arriving in this river, drinking this water right away was very refreshing. They hoped this water would not disappear in spite of the extreme drought. The hard thing was when someone had to defecate. With a distance of 20 minutes, the kids preferred to defecate not far from the location of the mine. They chose the bushes. Of course
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there was no water, and often they cleaned their anus with leaves and sometimes rubbed it with available rocks.
***
n the mine of Sukaernaruk, a pair of eyes of Grandma Martina stared widely at Jelia (14), who was translating the questions from a short interview with her. In one of the East Timorese languages Jelia asked questions related to personal aspects of the grandmother, such as her age, number of children and grandchildren, and the reasons for working in this manganese mine. She lived in a house with her two grandchildren. She no longer lived with her children as they already had families. It was an attitude common amongst elderly Timorese parents who did not want to stay home with their children as long as she was self-sucient of her daily needs and chose to stay and raise their grandchildren. She needs to buy betel and areca, soap, rice and cooking oil as well. Jelia translated grandmas answers. The grandmother kept digging soil in front of her, choosing the manganese pebbles and putting them one by one into her bucket. Every now and then she scratched her infected arm and yet her ngers and nails were full of carbon dust. The more it itched, the harder she scratched her arm. The wounds opened up - at rst it was white and then red blood began to ll the wound. She did not care. Indeed, she spat and wiped the wound with the red-betel liquid. The betel liquid is expected to clean the carbon dust sticking o of her nails when she scratched. Then she took other manganese pebbles and placed them into her small bucket.
The grandson, who made her laugh before, had soft curly hair. He helped her to increase the amount of manganese pebbles. So far, on the eighth day he was here, he had collected four sacks. Each bag contained 50 kilograms of manganese and every kilogram of manganese would be valued at a thousand rupiahs. The exact numbers of course he could not know, because it was not his turn for his manganese rocks to be weighed yet. The one who weighed, Mr Francisco, was still busy recording the weight of manganese that had been obtained from every person and conrming the amount of money to be given to the miners who were all dirty from the carbon. But the dirt could not hide the spirit and cheerful aura beaming out of the face of these refugees. This was the most sensible and obvious job to them. There was a job, there was money, and they could eat. In this mining area, ve holes had been dug deeply. Manganese dust was ying as the wind blew hard. The holes were dangerous if proper care was not taken. On June 26, 2010, in the manganese mine of Sukaerbadak, Fatuketi Village, several kilometres from the location of this mine, three were buried and killed. They, Jose Pareira (36), Jorjana Gama (40), and his son Ferjiana Gama (15) had been digging their own grave. One of the group, Abilio Dos Santos (28) managed to escape but suered serious injuries. For a while injuries might save him from inhaling toxics from manganese. All people working in the mines, from morning to evening everyday, use no protection such as mask or a kind. Sometimes they think tragic deaths in the manganese mine, like their three brothers, is unavoidable. They also realize they might inhale toxics in the manganese everyday that might kill them slowly. They have very limited choices for their livelihood.
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Theyre looking for their deaths, said one miner of Sukaernaruk who knew that the digging they had been doing was violating regulations. They created a too-deep niche to the side and forgot to shatter the soil on top of it before the niche was being excavated deeper to the left or right. Those holes are similar to graves being continuously dug.
the RT 21 citizens. The miners needed a bucket of manganese to mangan (eat). For children and the elderly, a small bucket containing seven kilograms of manganese was enough, while for those adults who had more power had to deposit a 16-kilograms-bucket of manganese. If there is no deposit of a manganese bucket, it means languishing without lunch! Aleksius Leki (29) murmured happily while enjoying his lunch of only white rice and boiled noodles. Jose Maia dos Santos chose to stay behind in his village. He never spent a night at the mines. Their village in Asuulun needed to be guarded because most male adults were spending the night in Sukaernaruk. That night, though, in many places in Atambua people gathered around to watch the live broadcast of World Cup Foot ball game between North Korea Vs Portugal, he chose to walk around the village with his torch. He entered the narrow alleyways which connected the houses walled with palm leaves (bebak). The refugee village was extremely vulnerable to thieves. Thefts happened very often. Inadequate street lighting made this area even more prone to thefts and Jose devoted himself to guarding it. At two oclock in the morning, he would return to his house and had some sleep for a while. As he used to get up at four oclock in the morning then he would wake up after only two hours of sleep. Even though he had slept, it was just a light sleep where he would be awake if he heard suspicious sounds. When the sun was rising, Jose Maia dos Santos released his two pigs from the barn. Soon after, he would tie the rope around a black pig on a dry soil. The pigs he reared since two years ago were the savings of his small family since they lived in Asuulun. The surrounding was quiet. Almost no one passed by this crowded housing. The wells with the European Union seal were
***
his June 27th is the 25th day, and so far the total weight of manganese that has been achieved, according to Siprianus Wempimanek, was over 100 tons which means the money they received had been 100 million rupiahs. The number of miners were nearly one hundred and fty which was divided into ve groups, all were displaced families living in Asuulun from three dierent Neighbourhood complex (or RT) , i.e. RT 21, 22, and 23. Jose Maia dos Santos occasionally came to monitor the work of the citizens. He had to ensure that the occupational security of the citizens was guaranteed. He always warned them to be careful and help each other, and ensured that nobody dominated the digging. An important thing was to make sure the niches were not too deep and that they should be torn down to avoid any collapse of this rocky soil. All day and night, this refugee village was almost deserted. Only a handful of people passed by. The rest lived at the manganese mine site, covered only by torn tarpaulin tents, with the cold of night stabbing their bones, and only eating once a day. Two meals would mean to reduce the amount of money earned. Fortunately, Maia Jose dos Santoss wife came helping for the cooking in one of the tents for
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deserted. No washing and bathing was seen. This became the daily scene in the residential area. Most villagers were at the manganese mines. Jose Maia dos Santoss house was simple. There were only ve plastic chairs, a table, and a wood cabinet in the living room and back room. There was also a room occupied by his wife and daughters, the door of which was just a piece of cloth. Behind the house, there was a kitchen separated from the house. The day was still. His children and wife were in Sukaernaruk digging for manganese. It was the time of the school holidays and that meant a chance for each refugee family to gather more manganese rocks to increase the familys income. Before there was a manganese mine, the village was crowded with the daily activities of citizens and their work was more varied. Many housewives bought vegetables to be sold around from home to home to the citizens of Belu. There were also many small kiosks in some houses here. However, due to a decrease in number of people in the village, especially children in this last three weeks, they had no
choice but to close the kiosk and follow in the footsteps of other family members who had been in Sukaernaruk. Toward evening, they all had nished cleaning their bodies. Five tents of ve big groups began to be lled one by one. Children of Jose Maia were still playing with tired bodies. Soon they would be asleep. Etilia Saromento Borjes (11) and Sulestiana De Castros (12) with some of their friends could not take it anymore; they went inside the tent and dreamed of buying school uniforms, school books, and crackers. Their sisters were still having fun chatting while listening to pop songs from one of their cell phones. No later than nine oclock they were going inside since sleeping was so important to them that night. Tents were full, jostling and there was no other option but to sleep in whatever position they could nd.
***
They are working together to collect manganese crumbs and ll the big sacks until full. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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hat night, Jose Maia visited Mr. Dominggus. This family was the only one who did not go to manganese mining. As a teacher at a public school and as a Civil Servant, Dominggus realized how dangerous it was for the children to work in manganese mining. He suggested to Jose to continually warn the citizens about the importance of washing hands before eating, using a mask when working, and if necessary to use gloves. Jose silently thought about the teachers words and thought that the teacher was right. Their children aged 3-7 years were in there and their parents over the age of 60 years were also dealing with poisons in this mine. Once again, he thought about those words of the impacts of working in this mining; cough, insomnia, acute respiratory distress, coughing up blood, chest pain on the left, mucous and bloody diarrhoea, with the most severe being tumour growth in the genitals. He keeps his own words in his heart, But, we need money to eat, our children need money to buy uniforms, books and pens, and fares. Before he left, he simply said, Ill tell them your advice. He then returned home, still guarding his anxiety. The light of his torch ickered against the wall of houses, trees and land in front of him.
ooOoo
Translator by Dian Utami Putri
28
Many children work as little miners. They are very fragile because of their age and they should not have been in the manganese mining area. They work without any safety equipment.
29
Ibu Kostina and her farming equipment.
MDGs as My Development Goals 30 (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
The Magma Woman in Samosir

By Anwar Jimpe Rachman
t never crossed the mind of Kostina Sinurat (46) that her son, Sandro Sitanggang (27), would refuse to continue his education, in spite of the fact that the seven siblings of Sandro had decided otherwise. Up to now, I cannot understand why, said Kosti. The voice of this huge and healthy woman is certain, steady, and resolute, like the sound of baligathe weaving instrument that she is using everyday to pull and tighten each thread of the ulos. Her stare is sharp and full of concentration, like the way she looks when she is weaving ulos, a typical cloth of the Batak ethnic group. It was Wednesday afternoon at that time, the third week of May. Sandro is the eldest son of Kosti Sinurat and Sintong Sitanggang. Sandro is residing in Jakarta now, earning a living as a driver of a public bus. But we already tried to convince him to continue his studies. If he himself doesnt want to continue his studies, what can we do? said Kosti submissively. She stopped moving the baliga for a while and continued her work. The education of the younger siblings of Sandro is complete. Elis (25) is a graduate
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of Economic Management at Univesitas Katolik Santo Thomas in Medan and is now in charge of the administration of Radio Samosir Green; Verawaty is an alumni of a one-year diploma program (D1) in Medikom Medan and is now working in PNPM Samosir; Esra who was born in 30 October 1988 is still studying and taking up midwifery; Domuraja (20) is a graduate of PMDK in Bandung; Hendra Priyantoni (18) is a second year Senior High School, he repeated his studies because he stopped for a year when he broke his leg in an accident in August 2009; Apriyoni who was born on 27 April 1996 is now grade III; and the youngest is Elisabeth, 12 years old, she is a rst year Junior High School, She is top of her class, Kosti said proudly. Kosti is a weaver in a small community in Huta Lumban Nabolak, Buhit Pardugul. Huta (village) is located in the periphery of Toba Lake that is administratively included in the Pangururan Sub-district, Samosir District. This village is located approximately 10 kilometres from Pangururan, capital of Samosir, and it is inhabited by six clans, namely; Sinurat, Sitanggang, Malau, Nainggolan, Naibaho, and Sihotang. Tradition is preserved in huta. Here, ancient traditional houses are still maintained, the long house (rumah ganjang) and the big house (rumah bolon) are still there, complete with the photo of a pastor which is located on the right side of the main door. They say that the person in the said photo is the rst pastor that served in Huta Lumban Nabolak. There is also a wooden bed that is about 200 years old. This is a legacy from our ancestors; a legacy that we inherited. Only the roof was changed and replaced with corrugated iron sheets. The kitchen is in the back now. Everything else, starting from the walls up to the pillars are still
as they were. Before, six families lived here. That is why their kitchen was in the middle before, explained Kosti the next day while pointing at the big house that is exactly next to her house, without walls! Kosti exclaimed, as if she already knows the follow-up question in her explanation. Kosti weaves ulos everyday, from morning until sunset. The weavers in Buhit Pardugul are doing ulos with a Karo motif. Ulos with a Karo motif is not really woven in her village; rather, it is made by the women in Samosir. The distance of Karo from Samosir would take a trip that would leave in the morning and return home at night. If I do it continuously, said Kosti, while looking up, I can nish one piece in three or four days, Konsti continued. After this, she took a piece of cloth that was maroon red mixed with brown from a plastic bag and showed a sample of her craftsmanship. The burden of Kosti in nishing a sheet becomes light because of the help of her two youngest daughters. Elisabeth rolls the threadthe raw material of the cloth that will be woven that is bought in Karo while Apriyoni helps mangani (aligning the thread inside the weaving instrument). The sun is starting to fade at the back of the mountain across Lake Toba. The clouds are turning orange. Kosti stopped weaving. She removed the tundalan, the instrument that restrains her back and she puts the pagabe (the instrument that holds the cloth) and the giun (the instrument that separates the pieces of thread) near the pemapan (the instrument that restrains the thread). After this, she took the turak (where the thread is placed) and placed it inside a round can together with the other rolls of thread. The round can where the rolls of thread are kept is a can that used to be a container of a snack. After doing this, this
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woman with straight hair immediately sat down and drank tea from a glass, ate a gabin cake, and mingled with her relatives. While stretching her body, she said, the parts of the body that are often painful after weaving are the thighs and shoulders. Kosti then turned her head to Derita Sitanggang (31) who was sitting beside her. Both spoke in Batak languageit looked like Derita asked something. Derita who is usually called Nai Dimpos by her friends has been accompanying Kosti while playing with her one year old baby who is lying on top of a dark green mattress. The house of Nai Dimpos is three houses away from the house of Kosti. Some of the relatives of Kosti, mostly kids, are gathered together in the yard of Kosti playing. Every now and then, the sound of a pig can be heard from a pig pen that is only three or four metres away from the place where Kosti is weaving. According to Kosti, the products of her weaving are directly fetch by the tok (peddlers of ulos cloth) in Lumban Nabolak. Usually, these peddlers also bring the raw material for the weaving from Karo. Before, when we (I) were still single, we ourselves brought and sold our ulos to Karo. Now, because we are already busy taking care of our children, they (tok) started to come here to get our products, explained Nai Dimpos. The price of ulos, like the product of the craftsmanship of Kosti is Rp. 300.000 per sheet. For every sheet, Kosti earns a net prot of Rp. 120.000. Kosti obtains this prot from the following calculation: labour cost Rp. 120.000 (Rp. 30.000 4 working days) + Rp. 60.000 (capital for the material) = Rp. 180.000,-. This Rp. 300.000 price per sheet of cloth can increase twice or even more when the peddlers
sell them in the market. This price is about three times higher than the ulos that is made using a machine. According to the peddlers in onan,1 the ve days a week market in Parurungan, the price is higher because the ulos that is hand woven is more neat and tighter compared with the ulos that is made by a machine. Initially, ulos was only used by the Batak community during rituals that mark the cycle of life, such as, giving birth, traditional wedding and death ceremonies. However, lately, the use of ulos within the Batak community became more widespread; starting from delivering a baby, baptism, becoming sidi, entering a new house, traditional wedding and death ceremonies. The family from the brides side will bring the ulos while the family from the grooms side will give tumpak (money). If the ulos that is gathered is many, some will be sold to the peddlers of ulos. The number of ulos that is gathered depends on the number of invitations, for example, the number of invitations in a traditional wedding ceremony. The ulos that is gathered can be sold to cover the cost of the wedding party. The peddlers of ulos will attend and wait until the party is over. When the party is over or the next day after the party, they (peddlers of the ulos) will come to oer ulos cloths, explained an activist from KSPPM Parapat, Delima Silalahi, while reminiscing upon her experience during her own wedding party in 2002. According to Kosti, just like other commodities, the price of ulos can also increase and decrease. At certain times, like, Ramadan (many of the
The term onan came from the Batak Toba language on (there) and an (here). It refers to the many goods that that are available/sold in the market every week.
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people in Karo have embraced Islam) and the start of classes, the price of ulos decreases. The buyers prefer to buy sembako (nine basic commodities) during the fasting month and prior to New Year or they prefer to buy school uniform or school supplies for their children who will go to school, explained Kosti. Kosti also taught her skill in weaving ulos to her daughters when they were still small; starting from Elis, her eldest daughter, up to Elisabeth, her youngest. The youngest learned how to roll a thread when she was still in elementary school. This imparting of knowledge came naturally. Children are usually like that, if they see us working, they will asked us to teach them too. My youngest asked me to teach her when she saw me and her sister rolling a thread. Since elementary school, they are already rolling thread while learning mangani. When they already know how to roll, they will learn mangani. When they are already third year Junior High School until Senior High School, they will learn how to weave. In their Senior High School age, they can make one sarung (cloth worn the middle of the body and tucked around the waist) a week. We on the other hand can make two or three sarungs per week, related Kosti. Weaving ulos helps Kosti and Sintong, her husband, manage their household that they run since 1982. With the income earned from selling the ulos, Kosti is helping Sintong who is working in the rice eld; provided of course that I am not bothered by harvesting or planting season, said Kosti. It is starting to get dark. The lamp in the family room of Kosti is already lit. The parents and the children who are gathered in the yard already
went home and only the two pet dogs of Kosti are left in the yard. Kosti wraps her weaving instrument with a sarung and goes up to her house.
***
he next day, the weather in Lumban Nabolak is clear and bright. From the West, from the direction of Lake Toba, a cool wind is slowly blowing. Elisabeth and Apriyoni have already left with their father who will bring them to their school. Elis who has not yet left for work is cooking food in the kitchen. Meanwhile, in the yard, the weaving instruments of Kosti are lying idle. Today, Kosti must spread out and dry husked rice grains that were harvested from the rice eld owned by the family of Kosti which is 9 rante2 wide. These rice grains were planted in December last year. Sintong who just arrived after bringing his children to school cannot help Kosti. Today, with a kupluk and an undershirt with a military motif, Sintong took some betel leaves and lime and immediately smashed it to pieces. He will leave to help harvest the rice eld of his relative. The farmers in Samosir are still applying the concept of marsiadapari (working together) in harvesting rice elds. Which rice eld will be harvested rst depends on the discussion that is held during the break of the farmers who will help in the harvesting. They will help in the harvesting until all of the rice elds owned by this farmers group are harvested.
Rante is a measurement unit in North Sumatra equalling 400 square metres of land.
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Ibu Kostina is weaving using traditional weaving loom. Bu Kostina could make a piece of cloth in a week and she can earn Rp 300,000 for a piece of cloth. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
The rice eld that gets ripe rst will be harvested rst, explained Sintong. They dont receive payment in doing this but the owner of the rice eld prepares food for the workers, Kosti added. Then, Sintong and Kosti went their separate ways. The husband left by foot while Hendra was already waiting on a motorcycle to bring her mother to the drying area of the husked rice grains. In the drying area, with the help of Hendra, Kosti took out six or seven sacks of husked rice grains from the family rice granary that is located in the rice mill of the youngest brother of Kosti. At the back of the rice mill, across Lake Toba, Pusuk Buhit which is referred as the ubun-ubun (crown) of North Sumatra can be seenthe starting place where the Batak ethnic group
had their descendants.3 In this rice granary, the food supply for the basic needs of the family are stored for a year because the harvesting cycle of the rice elds in Samosir is only once a year. After spreading out the husked rice grains, Kosti calculated the uncooked rice that is needed by the family. The result is more or less 60 kaleng4 for one year. Kosti obtained this result by counting the food that will be consumed by the seven members of her family per day; this is about 10 mok or 1.5 litres of uncooked rice for three meals times 12 months.
The Dutch Government named the area Central Batakland which means, The Central Land of the Batak Ethnic Group. See Lance Castle, Kehidupan Politik Suatu Karesidenan di Sumatera (Political Life of a Residential Area in Sumatra, Tapanuli 1915-1940, Jakarta: KPG, 2001. Can, unit measurement in Samosir for 10 litres.
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Her section of rice eld produced 200 cans or two tons of rice grains in 2010. This is enough for us, the rest, we sell, said Kosti. However, the income earned from selling this excess rice grains is not yet the net prot. Kosti and her husband should still calculate the cost of the fertilizer (three sacks of urea and one sack of TSP for 9 rante). The price of the uncooked rice is Rp. 95.000/can (10 litres). According to the oldest person in Huta Lumban Nabolak, Rido Dori Sitanggang (72), although the amount is big, only one third of this harvest will be consumed for family needs. The remaining two thirds, based on his experience, is spent for the cost of traditional ceremonies, such as, wedding ceremony, giving birth, death, or other activities. Each family should provide ulos or at least Rp. 50.000 in cash said Rido Dori. Kosti will keep the money earned from selling the remaining uncooked rice by depositing it in her bank account or by saving it in the form of an arisan, both the arisan of the farmers group and the arisan of PKK. I dont have a big amount of money. The money I put in the arisan is bigger that the money I put in the bank. If there is some money left from buying food, I save it until it reaches 500 thousand rupiah or one million rupiah before I deposit it in the bank, Kosti related. The amount of money that Kosti has to deposit in the arisan every month is not less than Rp. 2.500.000. According to Kosti, she is doing this because of her responsibility in paying for the education of her children. This woman who has nished her Senior High School education is sending money to Domuraja who is in college in Bandung and Verawaty who is in Medan; she sends each of them Rp. 1.500.000 every month. A minimum of Rp. 300.000 per week for the
food of the family and the education costs of her children in Samosir is not yet included. The two youngest daughters of Kosti are included in the education insurance of Bumi Asih until the end of 2009. Every 6th of the month, Kosti pays Rp. 50.000/month to the employee of Bumi Asih Pangururan who comes to Lumban Nabolak to collect her payment. Actually, that is the money of the children, they earned that money from doing mangani. The money earned from selling the cloth that they weaved is set aside. This way, later, when they graduate from Senior High, this money will be spent when they go to college, said Kosti. However, it seems that this is mechanism of Kosti in protecting the future of her daughters. In the system of inheriting the wealth of the family in a Batak community, the son has the right to inherit the wealth left by the family, like what happened to the family of Kosti. She has six siblings. All of them are female, except the youngest. As such, all of the wealth of the family, like the rice mill and the rice granary where Kosti kept the rice grains earlier were inherited by her youngest brother. And then Kosti laughed revealing her neatly aligned white teeth. She remembered the time when she teased her youngest daughter, Elisabeth, and told her that she wont have to go to college when the time comes. You dont have to go to college when you grow up. Just take care of me, persuaded Kosti. Ah, I dont like that! said her youngest, persistently I will be old when you go to college. Come on, all my brothers and sisters went to college while Im not? I dont like it! Tell my
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Entry sign to enter Lumban Nabolak Forest area, Pardugul Hill. Most of women in this area are cloth weavers. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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A portrait of weaving family. They always try to fulll their daily needs. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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brothers and sisters to help you. Im the smallest and Im the one who doesnt go to college? Kosti graduated from SMA Negeri 1 Pangururan. While studying in school, she is fond of mathematics. After nishing her Senior High School education, she married the young Sintong who only nished Junior High SchoolSintong did not continue his education not because he did not want to, at that time, explained Kosti, the parents of Sintong were very sick. Here, education is prioritized because of the changing times. As long as our children can go to school, their education becomes higher and they become more capable of attaining their aspirations. They can also prepare for their future when they get married and they can support their children later on. We were not able to nish our education but we will try to provide our children with the highest education, as much as we can, explained Kosti. Her voice is resolute and steady. Within the household, Kosti applies a discipline of division of duty and independence to her children. Each of her children has their respective duties based on their capability and they remember their duties well. Elisabeth, cooks rice in the morning. After this, she takes a bath. After putting on her school uniform, she eats breakfast with the rice that she cooked earlier. Sometimes, she will ask her sister, Elis, to fry a sh for her. After returning from school, she studies how to roll a thread. By four or four thirty in the afternoon, she washes the dishes. After this, related Kosti, she cooks rice again for dinner. Apriyoni helps her mother to do mangani. After this, she washes the clothes of all the members of the family in the river or lake. Meanwhile, Hendra works by digging sand. Hendra does
this after coming home from school. For a one cubic meter of sand, Hendra earns Rp. 50.000 by selling the sand that he obtained to his uncle, the youngest brother of his mother, who has a motor truck that transports the sand and delivers construction materials. This is practical because the cost of education of the children is already covered. These children dont buy snacks. It is not allowed. They are brought to school early in the morning. Every Wednesday, each of them is given Rp. 10.000 per week for their expenses, said Kosti. However, this rule is only applicable from Monday to Saturday. Every Sunday, all of the duties of these people end. Even money to buy snacks is provided. Going to church is a must. I just let them do what they want to do. They can play, sleep, and take a rest. Every Sunday, we cook together. After this, we take a bath and go to church. The face of Kosti looks serious when she said this.
***
o support their savings, Kosti joined a credit union (CU). Actually, the Bulutorus CU membership card is under the name of Vera. When Vera left for Medan to study college, Kosti continued Veras membership in this CU. When it was started on 1 August 1998, the CU only has 20 members. Now, this independent credit system has 72 members from two villages, Pardugul Village and Parlondut Village and its asset is about Rp. 48.000.000. Bulutorus obliges its members to deposit an initial capital of Rp. 5.000; principal deposit of Rp. 10.000, and a compulsory deposit of Rp. 5.000 every month.
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If we have excess money, we can provide a voluntary saving, said the Treasurer of Bulutorus CU, Nai Dimpos. CU is a form of savings and credit business and all of its benets are allocated to the members. CU is a self-sucient communitybased economic formula that was adopted from Germany and introduced by Kelompok Studi Pengembangan Prakarsa Masyarakat (KSPPM). KSPPM is a non-government institution that is based in Parapat. Its aspiration is to develop the initiative of the community by empowering the people to change an oppressive social, political, economic, and cultural system. This fund is revolved to anyone who wants to obtain a loan. The limit of the loan can be three times bigger than the shares that the concerned borrower has deposited. Its advantage is the two percent interest that decreases based on the remaining loan. For example, Rp. 2.000.000 is borrowed and the payment will be conducted 10 times. So, the amount of the rst interest will be Rp. 40.000 per month. If the payment of the loan on the rst month is Rp. 240.000 (instalment + interest) then the remaining amount of loan is Rp. 1.760.000. So, the amount of the interest later on will be based on Rp. 1.760.00. It is not a sole interest like the banks, explained Dimpos in detail. The biggest loans obtained from Bulutorus CU are used for agricultural capital, education of the children, and opening a weaving business, like what Kosti and her relatives did. At present, the management temporarily limited the loans to six members only and it also limited the amount of the loan to a maximum amount of Rp. 2.000.000. This is applied so that the members can have an equal opportunity in
obtaining a loanconsidering the limited capital of Bulutorus CU. Kosti herself has already obtained a loan from the fund of the CU several times for the education of her children. Her monthly instalment is Rp. 240.000, I give Rp. 250.000 to pay the instalment and the Rp. 10.000 is for my savings (voluntary saving), explained Kosti. In the business world, the party who lends does not need to know the borrower personally. The main concern is whether the borrower has the capacity to repay the credit since the main purpose of the credit business is how to make prot as big as possible. In credit union, on the contrary, everybody is treated equal. It is appealing in Bulutorus CU, where members recognize each other as social beings who have to help and support each other. The member of Bulutorus who wants to obtain a loan needs to obtain the approval of the credit committee. The Credit Committee is a group of people who knows their members very well. Based on the explanation of Nai Dimpos, they know the capability of the candidate borrower because they know where she lives and what she is doing everyday. If the committee does not approve the loan, then the disbursement of the loan will be cancelled. If the loan is approved and during the process of the repayment of the loan the borrower postpones the payment, the said borrower will be ned and the amount of the ne is two percent of the monthly instalment. All the members of the CU are women. They conduct a routine exchange of ideas every month because all the members are members of the church congregation. The members of CU conduct this discussion in the Oce of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) Buhit Church Congregation. If someone fails to attend this
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meeting, we check why she did not attend. We should always attend. We are not just a group of money. We are a group of the community! This time, the forehead of Dompis wrinkled, giving emphasis to her last sentence. In these discussions that can last for four hours, the members of the group discuss dierent things, starting from the menu that will be prepared, processing of plastic garbage, organic fertilizer, up to political problems, such as the direct election of head of the district how to become a smart voter. During the commemoration of Environment Day, Food Day, we go to the Oce of the Provincial Parliament (DPRD). No, we dont stage a demonstration. We only conduct a mass action, said Dompis while laughing, This is also the same during Pilkada (local elections). We discuss how to become a smart voter. We dont choose our candidate, we only look at the programs of the candidates and choose the program that is really concerned with the people. Dont choose just for the sake of having a candidate, added Dompis. Once, during RAT, in order to have more information about the political and development agendas of the legislative candidates for their district, they invited the legislative candidates to the meeting. But, they never came! exclaimed Dompis. The CU meetings are also used by the members for political education for the members in order that they do not elect candidates from blank slate.
However, it depends on the shares. Unlike banks, banks are for certain people. In the CU, the more we borrow, the bigger the interest we can obtain later on, explained Dompis. According to Delima, at present, banks are actually afraid of CU. There are also huge Credit Unions (CU) that are supported by the institutions of the Catholic Church but they are very professional, like banks. So, in these Credit Unions, the members do not know the other members in their CU. Here, the members meet every month, they conduct a sharing (discuss together) on the issues related to farmers and other issues. So, they themselves take care of one another. Not other people! explained Delima.
***
osti and her family live in a hilly area. No matter how bright the weather is, the air is still cool and the heat of the sun is not piercing. This is because Samosir is located 1,000 metres above sea level. In addition to this, there are kemiri trees, mango trees, coee trees with red and green fruits that mix together in their stems, and cotton trees grow around their house. The fruit of the cotton tree that turns brown on the third week of May is starting to break and spread its cotton to every direction, a sign that the dry season has arrived. Aside from providing sucient supply of oxygen, these trees also provide additional income to the family, particularly the kemiri in their garden that is one rante, 400 square metres. Kosti sells the kemiri for Rp. 35.000/can (10 litres). The buyers themselves go to Lumban Nabolak to buy the kemiri seeds that Kosti harvested.
What happens to the accumulated interest? Like any business body, every year, Bulutorus CU convenes the Annual Members Meeting (RAT). The income is divided to all the members.
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Aside from the trees in their yard, the family of Kosti also obtains fruits from their plantation. In that plantation, they grow bananas, avocado, mangoes, and corn. If the avocado tree has fruits, we bring it home and make juice in our house. If we have money, we add milk to the avocado juice, Kosti said laughing while wiping the sweat from her forehead. Perhaps she imagines how delicious the juice would be in this bright weather, after drying the husked rice grains around the rice mill of her brother. There is a weekly market every Wednesday, where Kosti usually sells fruits. In this market, Kosti also can buy meat If I dont have enough money to buy one kilogram of meat, I buy one half kilogram, if I cannot aord to buy one half kilogram, I only buy meat that costs Rp. 10.000, she said calmly. She admitted that she applies this rule in her house ever since, especially lately when the ocial in the local Puskesmas (Local Health Centre) suggested the same. Because of the natural condition and the pattern of the food intake applied by Kosti, all the members of the family are healthy. My children seldom get sick. If they get sick, it is only the usual cold. I dont bring my children to Puskesmas when they have a cold, I just call the midwife. She would go to our house, examine the children and give them medicine. They were never given an injection, explained Kosti. The worst health history actually happened to Sintong. The condition of the liver of the husband of Kosti became acute in 1997 so he was brought to the hospital in Medan. There, he was treated for two weeks so Kosti who was four and a half months pregnant with Elisabeth at that time was forced to go to Medan to accompany her husband. When they home from the hospital, Kosti treated her husband
by using an alternative medicine in Belawan. I dont remember the name of the medicine but I remember that roots were cooked, said Kosti while playing with gold bracelet. Because of that liver illness, Sintong cannot put salt in his foods for one whole year. Everyday, he only ate grilled freshwater sh and boiled beans. That is also the reason why he cannot smoke again. Before, he was fond of drinking alcoholic drinks. Now, he changed already. He doesnt gamble anymore, he doesnt get drunk anymore, said Kosti in a low voice. Now, Sintong replaced his cigarettes with betel leavesa common habit in Lumban Nabolak. Fortunately, at that time, Kosti and Sintong had sucient savings, their dependents were not yet as many as now, and their children were still small. At that time, our savings reached Rp. 50.000.000. When the children started to go to college, we started to experience diculties, disclosed Kosti. Her eyes are not blinking and she continued to even out the scattered husked rice grains with her hands. Like the magma that piled up and formed the Island of Samosir and gave life to one hundred thirty thousand people, with all her strength, Kosti alsoeven though she moved in silence gave life to the people closest to her.
oOo
Translator by Luisa Bahagijo
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Ibu Kostina is spreading out the unhulled paddy in the sun to dry (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Sukarman trusted the management of the chili seedling to his wife. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010) MDGs as My Development Goals
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Making Imprints in the Sand

By EM. Ali
3-year old Sukarman parks his blue motorcycle by the side of a dirt road. Still with his helmet on, he walks toward a plot of land framed with horseradish trees, functioning as the boundary that separates his land from neighboring farms. The 20 x 40 meter sandy land stretches out before him. The morning sun shines on soft beach sand mixed with dark manure. He observes the piece of land primed for cultivation. I want to try using mulch for this particular land, informs Sukarman succinctly in rising intonation, his voice loud although not as deafening as a shout, typical of the voice tone of the coastal natives. Mulch a plastic protective cover placed over loose soil to prevent evaporation is a new technique developed by Sukarman for chilli (Capsicum annum) cultivation on sandy land at Panjatan south coast in Kulon Progo. The unassuming and jovial Sukarman is a man fearless in taking risks. When other farmers are preoccupied with planting chillies and enjoying their harvest with an already sound agricultural system, Sukarman instead opts to adopt an alternative farming technique. When it comes to unusual methods, if they are still unproven farmers will not even try them out, he said with amusement. Somebody has got to be bold enough to have a go. Ive tried it yesterday and it produced satisfactory results.
But I still think that the results are less than optimal. I must try it again. I saw this technique being used by farmers in Sleman. Their land is not as dry as the ones here yet they still prefer using mulch. I believe that applying it on sandy land with a higher evaporation rate would be as eective, the father of two explained further about the new technique. As the leader of the Gisik Pranaji farmers group and recognized as the authority in chilli cultivation, Sukarman is often requested to attend the harvest of other farming communities. From such visits, he observes and learns the planting techniques of other farmers. Based on numerous observations and lessons learned, he then applies them on his own land. He is willing to allow his land to become the experimental subject before other planters can replicate his technique. His eldest son, 23-year old Wahyu Purwo shortly arrived at the property. Joining his father, Wahyu shifted the long plastic rope used to form the raised beds. All morning, Sukarman has nearly completed two beds of soil. This is what my father does. He works at it again and again. Hes never afraid of failing, Wahyu comments on his father experimenting on the use of mulch for planting chillies.
***
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anjatan, circa 1985. A 27-year old unemployed man is strolling along the black sand beach. Sea breeze and the rays of the sun scorch his already tanned features. He abruptly stops in his tracks. Amid a thicket of wild grass, three chilli plants stand out. Ripe red peppers hang abundantly on their branches. The young man is Sukarman. He stares silently in awe of the chilli plants. He touches the matured pepper fruits. Fresh wholesome red chillies. Can chilli thrive on sandy land? Young Sukarman, tired of seeking employment in the city, is inspired by the three chilli plants that he has just discovered. A diploma graduate specializing in maintenance from Akprind, a private college in Yogyakarta in 1985, Sukarman later started his own agricultural business on sandy land near the southern coast of Kulon Progo - an undertaking that was beyond his imagination. It all began with a piece of dry land. The local inhabitants of Panjatan considered Sukarmans enterprise as a bizarre venture. Sukarmans plan to grow chillies on sandy land was regarded as being farfetched. Moreover, Sukarman was a man with an academic degree, thus why would a college graduate want to undertake such hard work as planting chillies? They doubted me because I lacked the necessary expertise in farming, says Sukarman. But he was condent of himself. If even wild peppers can ourish without being tended to, imagine what would happen if they are seriously cultivated. The results will unmistakably be far better. But pure conviction does not suce; tangible action is essential. The most pivotal part of Sukarmans endeavor was not simply proving to the people of Panjatan, but more importantly to prove to himself that his plan was not mere
speculation but that chillies can indeed grow well in sandy land. Sukarman prepares the chilli seedlings. He layers the sandy soil with manure before forming the raised beds. Once the seeds are ready, he transfers them to the beds. On sandy soil, water supply for plants creates a dierent set of problems. Water vanishes rapidly from the land surface. Through communal support from neighboring farmers, Sukarman dug a well. They rely on bronjong, woven bamboo, to retain the wells wall from crumbling. The average depth of wells in coastal land is 5 to 7 meters. Two months passed and the chilli plants bore plentiful fruits. Sukarman is pleased with the outcome of his hard work. Upon witnessing Sukarmans success in cultivating chillies on sandy land, the local residents of Panjatan followed suit and started growing them on their own. Sukarman readily shares his experience and knowledge with others. I learn from plants. The farmers can only know from observing how I plant chillies. For the spraying technique, they need only to look at the cover, explains Sukarman on early chilli planting method in a forceful voice, distinctive of the intonation of coastal natives who probably speak in such loud voices to drown out the sound of gusty winds and rumbling waves. Sukarman bears witness to the buoyant fortunes of the people of Panjatan. He did not envision that his act will be followed by many others. Despite the optimistic turn of events, he has not fully decided to become a chilli farmer. Having a diploma degree has yet again made him rethink about his future pursuits. I still wish to work elsewhere. I have a wife and a child. Farming on sandy land then was not as
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The banner shows one of the protest actions by the chili farmers in Gubug Village, Panjatan, Kulon Progo. They protested the Kulon Progo Regional Representative Council (district parliament) and Kulon Progo Regency government because they planned to give license to an international sand mining company to exploit the area. They are against this idea because sand iron land is the main source of livelihood for most of the farmers in the villages. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
promising as it is now, he says as he relaxes on his front porch. Sukarman is wearing a sarong and kopiah (rimless cap worn by Muslim men). He looks neater and dirt free that evening. It has become a ritual of his to clean himself up after nishing work at the farm and tending the cattle, preparing himself for an audience with the Creator at the nearest mosque located precisely in front of his house. Sukarman is a religious man and he never misses an opportunity to bring himself closer to God. Amid his uncertainty, Sukarman carries on with his chilli farming and produces his own seedlings. It was only three years after his initial idea, in 1990, that Sukarman eventually decided to truly become a chilli farmer. He kept his diploma in the cupboard and since then has never looked at it again. The ery avor of chillies permeates into the fresh sea breeze, blowing gently across Panjatan land. The enthusiasm of the local population is further inamed. Sandy land once void of motion is now animated with the joyous shouts and laughter of the people of Panjatan. Empty plots of sandy land have quickly transformed into lush green chilli leaves or ripe red pepper fruits. As the number of chilli farmers surges, the need for seedlings correspondingly increases. Chillies grown in Panjatan are mainly of the TM 999, Helix, Lado, Alligator and Volcano varieties. At the time, the price of chilli plummeted and I decided to select the good quality chillies, dried them up and produced chilli seedlings. Twenty kilograms of chillies were sown and created more than 1000 m2 of chilli plantation. Selling chilli seeds has better market prospects as I am the one setting the price. The price of chilli however is determined by the market. Hence, I can take advantage of both the price of chilli and the seedlings. If I plant chillies and the price is good, I will sell them o. If the price is unprotable, I will not plant chillies but instead will buy them to cultivate seedlings, explained Sukarman. Sukarman began his seedling business in 1990. He sells chilli seeds directly to farms. Farmers know rst hand about the quality of his seedlings and are not hesitant to purchase them from Sukarman. His seedling business mainly ourished through word of mouth. Many other farmers have also followed in his footsteps. By the early 1990s, around 50 farmers have started their own seedling business. Not long however, the seedling business also experienced a slump. Its natural selection. Nowadays, only ve seedling producers remain in business. This business indeed requires perseverance, he added. Amongst those still in business, Sukarman remains the largest producer. Chilli farmers who appear at Sukarmans house are not merely from Panjatan. Planters from Bantul District who have started cultivating chillies on
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sandy land have also bought seedlings from Sukarman. The management of the seedling business is handed over to his wife. In a single day, ve to ten people will arrive at his nursery to purchase chilli seeds. 38-year old Mrs. Sukarman walks back and forth to the nursery, busy tending to every customer. Many seedling producers have turned to Sukarman for advice on how to eectively plant chillies on sandy land. Sukarman is only too pleased to share his knowledge. In terms of prot when the yield is satisfactory, for each kilogram of fresh chillies that I purchase at Rp 30,000, the seedlings that I can produce from these chillies can fetch Rp 120,000. But when the produce is not of good quality, each kilogram will only be priced at Rp 30,000 to Rp 80,000. Producing chilli seedlings needs a substantial amount of fresh chillies, sometimes reaching 2 tons, informed Sukarman who owns eight Limousin cows. In addition to cattle fattening, the herds droppings are used as fertilizers for seedlings. He refuses to use his own cattle dung to fertilize agricultural land. Fertilizer for farms is brought in from Bantul. For other cultivated lands, manure also comes from outside of Kulon Progo. In a single planting season, if the seedlings yielded are of rst-rate quality, Mrs. Sukarman will be able to earn Rp 80,000,000. This amount excludes earnings from selling the seedless chilli pods which are substantial in number. The chilli skins are sold to Padang restaurants which will turn them into chilli powder. These chillies are already taken, said Mrs. Sukarman in a gentle voice. At the nursery, I am in charge of marketing. My husband only concentrates on the sowing process. Once the seedlings are ready, I can sell them wherever possible, added the heavy-set woman.
I am really not a chilli farmer, Im a chilli seedling producer, said Sukarman while laughing out loud. Speaking on the seedling business run by his wife, Sukarman said, Im allowing my wife to be economically independent, not to be reliant on others. I only help out during the sowing stage. After that, everything else is managed by my wife. As such, I no longer need to worry if I have to attend meetings in distant places. Sukarman is often requested to share his knowledge with other chilli farmers in various places. He would frequently have to travel for days to pass on his knowledge and experience to other farmers groups.
***
arming techniques developed by chilli planters are constantly adapted to suit their harsh environment. The next phase in the development of Panjatans simple agricultural technology relates to the use of the well. A well hollowed out on sandy land in Panjatan had previously almost caused a villager to fall in due to crumbling walls. Sand consists of loose gritty particles without cohesiveness and can easily crumble. To avert a hazardous situation, a bronjong well on sandy soil must be reinforced with cement. Once the local people heard of concrete cylinders, bronjong wells were replaced with these concrete molds. The watering process normally done in the morning however, is still manually operated. Water is drawn, collected in a bucket and sprayed by using gembor, a metal sprayer. In earlier days, it would take a long time to water a plot of chilli eld. You can spend an entire day at the eld, recalled Maryono who had once fallen into a crumbling well.
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Every day in the morning and afternoon Sukarman sprays water over chili plants. His disciplined and hard works have made him as a role model for other farmers in the village. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Using gembor to water a 2000-meter section of land will almost take the whole day. Panjatan chilli farmers are aware of its ineectiveness and that the method requires the involvement of a large number of people, while establishing several wells on the farm entail substantial funds. Parched grounds and harsh environment have taught Panjatan chilli farmers to be resourceful in order to improve their quality of life. Chilli farmers have come up with the initiative to place a concrete base parallel to an existing well. Each concrete cylinder is spaced at a 1.5 meter distance. Only one 50-centimeter high cylinder will be installed and its base reinforced before adding bamboo in substitution for paralon pipes. When it is time to water the plants, farmers need only to draw and collect water into the main well before channeling water to other receiving wells through installed bamboos. When the receiving wells are full, chilli farmers will water the plants from these wells. Farmers no longer need to haul water to distant sections of the land. Apart from saving energy, this simple technology can also shorten the time needed to water the entire eld. This form of well, ingeniously invented by Panjatan chilli farmers is now widely known as renteng well. Since his success in pioneering chilli farming on sandy soil, Sukarman is frequently invited to various events as resource person on dryland farming, including requests to present lectures on dryland agriculture from universities such as UGM (Gadjah Mada University), UMY (Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University) and many other academic institutions. The land that I am working on now is part of UGMs research site, he said while pointing to the raised beds that he had just made. The situation is much better now. If there is a pest problem, I can ask for the opinion of agricultural experts. I only need to act upon
their recommendation on my own land and if it is successful, I will inform other farmers. These experts in turn have also asked for my views, probably because I am involved directly on the eld. Chilli cultivation has aorded the local population of Panjatan with ample work opportunities. Comparable to a ower, chilli farming has attracted hordes of people because of its tempting rewards. The rapid development of dryland agriculture appeals to many Panjatan natives, motivating them to cultivate chillies. The situation is supported by the presence of huge swathes of sandy land. A signicant number of the younger generation has even seized on the opportunity to become chilli farmers. What was normally perceived as a poorly-regarded profession is nowadays highly respected in Panjatan. Two young men had come earlier to my house. They had spent four years in Malaysia as migrant workers. They were interested in becoming chilli farmers, said Diro, one of the leaders of Panjatans farmers groups. The younger generation preferring to work as farmers is an interesting phenomenon in Panjatan. Sprawling sandy land and the high price of chilli has been a magnet to the younger generation now ever more willing to become chilli farmers. Local teenagers still in secondary school are already helping out their parents at the eld. They are actually the breadwinners of the family. Once they graduate, they are reluctant to continue their education and would prefer to become chilli farmers, explained Sukarman about the eagerness of the local youth in growing chillies, including his eldest son Wahyu. I earned Rp 15,000,000 yesterday for a single harvest, said Wahyu with amusement. The price rate was good yesterday.
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Wahyu had recently earned his diploma in sports education from UMY Wates. He serves as a physical education teacher in a school in Kulon Progo and is currently continuing his studies to earn a bachelors degree. Wahyu is a teacher-cum-chilli farmer just like his father. Not everything now should be done alone. A farmers work such as watering, clearing grass and harvesting chillies can be outsourced to other workers, he said. The high price of chilli is not only enjoyed by the farmers of Panjatan, but also extends to nearby villages primarily with regard to manpower absorption. In the past, everything was done through communal work, but not any more, Sukarman explained. He further added, To cultivate seedlings, I hire elderly women. The services of these women no longer benet the industrial sector. Rather than staying idle at home, I asked them to help me out, while giving them a chance to earn an extra income. They can peel the chillies and dry them out before the sowing process. And this is only for the cultivation of seedlings; harvest time is a dierent matter. Harvesting requires more manpower. I normally request for the help of ten people. From these ten workers, the number will grow. Harvest labor will bring along their relatives or friends. In a single planting season, chillies can be harvested 25 times. The average number of workers needed for a planting season can be up to 100 people. Try estimating how many pickers are needed. And this is apart from the number of workers required during harvest. If the price of chilli is good, female pickers can earn a daily income of Rp 30,000 to Rp 50,000, said Diro who hires workers for the entire chilli farming process. The current production of Panjatan chillies or more popularly known as Wates chillies in
other regions can reach an average of 50 tons per day. With a production volume of that proportion, it would certainly not be easy for consumers to directly have access to Wates chillies. Wholesalers are immediately lured to the prospect of trading Wates chillies sought by consumers. They come in droves to Panjatan in order to secure the lowest price directly from farmers. How can the price of chilli be controlled to prevent manipulation by large-scale traders? asked Sukarman voicing the concerns of local chilli farmers. As the head of a farmers group, Sukarmans house functions as the base camp for chilli farmers to congregate for discussions and seek viable solutions for farmers confronting varying problems. From these gatherings, the group has spearheaded an initiative to establish an auction market in order to stabilize chilli prices through a closed auction system. The idea for an auction market was rst proposed in 2002. Before 2002, during harvest time, traders arbitrarily xed the price of chilli. The commodity can be paid in advance, and usually the price is far lower than the real price in the harvest time. In the past, there were many middlemen around here, but that is no longer the case. Nowadays, dealings are done with the group before the chilies are transported directly to Jakarta, said Sukarman. At the auction market, chillies from farmers are collected by the respective auction groups. One or two days prior to the actual auction, the group leader will invite wholesalers to come to Panjatan. Traders must register before participating in the auction. The bidding process begins at 8 pm. Before the start of the auction, groups must determine their lowest price as the benchmark rate. The lowest price is based on the current market rate. Once all traders have
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arrived, the auction committee will distribute pieces of paper to the traders. Traders must write down the accepted price for each kilogram of chillies. Traders who dare to place the highest bid will have the right to purchase the chillies from the relevant group. The auction is indeed a farmers group initiative. The auction cannot set the price of chilli but at least it can control it, Sukarman asserted. There are currently 35 farmers groups in Panjatan joined under 21 auction groups. These auction groups can be found in Panjatan, Bugel and Garongan. Along Daendels Road, when night approaches it is easy to come across such groups. Auctions are carried out at the front porch of the houses of members. An auction house situated merely ten meters from Sukarmans house was eventually built after several years with support from the local agricultural oce. It is typical for the government to only be involved when things are already underway. Even without an auction house, the bidding process carries on among groups. Since assistance was oered, we accepted it. I also received a chilli dryer for seedling cultivation. But I have never used it. How is it possible for me to dry 2 tons of chillies with a dryer that only has a 30-kilogram capacity? said Sukarman wryly. The government had previously set up a kind of auction market but it was rendered inoperative. The present auction market has been replaced with a farmers market association. At the outset, the auction market was merged and developed, received guidance and facilitation. The amount harvested each day and each month is recorded. They will take all available data. They normally seek information and report to their superiors, and thats all there is to it.
The local agricultural oce of Kulon Progo rst oered assistance to Panjatans chilli farmers in 2000. The local oce initially provided guidance and counsel to farmers on chilli cultivation methods. Sukarmans house functions as the meeting point for ocials from the local agricultural oce. Sukarman warmly welcomes them and facilitates their contact with farmers groups. Anyone interested in assisting chilli farmers will receive a genial welcome from Sukarman. A training session on Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) conducted by the provincial local oce was recently held at Sukarmans house on 8-9 June 2010. The two-day training which focused on eorts to increase the quality of chillies was participated by representatives from Panjatans farmers groups. The provincial agricultural oce still has the nerve, but the district-level oce is somehow dierent. Since the proposed plan for an iron sand mining site, they are afraid to come here. Sukarmans voice faltered as he spoke these words. Sukarman and other residents of Panjatan are forced to confront an immediate issue that poses an impediment to their lives.
***
he Bugel Hamlet in Panjatan, Kulon Progo District of Yogyakarta Province has a large expanse of sandy land reaching roughly three thousand hectares spread across Galur, Panjatan, Temon and Wates as well as in ten villages, namely Banaran, Karangasem, Garongan, Pleret, Bugel, Glagah, Palian, Sindutan, Jangkaran and Karangwuni. The entire stretch of land initially lies idle, unused for any form of productive activity. Its ownership status is either tanah merah or Letter C.
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Green chili crops from Pak Sukarmans farm. Pak Sukarman produces good quality chili and has permanent customers with increasing numbers. MDGs as My Development Goals (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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The tanah merah status remains to be a contentious issue even to this day. Local residents consider it to be state-owned land, whereas the Pakualaman Principality claims ownership over the land situated in the coastal area. In the past, all lands in Yogyakarta remained under the authority of the two foremost sultanates, namely the Yogyakarta Sultanate and the Pakualaman Principality. The Yogyakarta Sultanate is headed by Sultan Hamengku Buwono, while Pakualaman is a principality created by the British colonial government. Pakualaman Principality was established by Governor General Sir Thomas Raes in 1813 following a political agreement between the British government and the Yogyakarta Sultanate. Prince Kangjeng Gusti Pangeran Adipati Paku Alam I was the son of Hamengku Buwono I, founder of the Yogyakarta Sultanate. The Pakualaman Principality was a dependent territory of the British colonial government. When power was transferred from the British monarchy to the Dutch rulers, Pakualaman Principality was jointly managed between Paku Alaman and the Dutch East Indies government1. The pact also marked the divisiveness in land ownership rights at the Yogyakarta Sultanate. The land area which stretches along Kulon Progo coastline is under the control of Pakualaman or what is now known by Panjatan natives as tanah merah. Letter C land status on the other hand refers to private property owned by the people of Panjatan. Chilli farms on sandy land introduced by Sukarman are partially situated on tanah merah. This particular section of the land would later be the cause of a prolonged dispute
between the local people and the government following the presence of an iron sand mining location. Before chilli cultivation became a thriving business, the sandy land remained unused. It was unproductive land. Several villagers did attempt to plant yam but the quantity was insignicant. Furthermore, it was done only during the rainy season. As the wet season ends, all forms of activities cease on the sandy land. The people of Panjatan migrate in droves to the city to nd work as laborers. Cities normally targeted by the local population are primarily Yogyakarta as it is the closest, then Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and a large number of the younger generation are even willing to work as migrant workers in Malaysia, Hongkong and Taiwan. Nobody goes to the beach. The land is unproductive and deserted, said Sukarman on the condition of his village before the growth of chilli farming in the area. Economically, Panjatan in earlier times was a disadvantaged area, a backward village. The local people dwell in houses made of wood with woven bamboo as walls. Many houses even have roofs pieced together from woven coconut leaves and walls erected from the same material with earthen oor. As an area located on the southern coast, directly facing the Indonesian sea, the natives of Panjatan however, are not a seafaring people nor are they shermen. Along the coastline stretching across 22 km, not many moored shing boats can be found a fascinating phenomenon for a coastal area. This is partially due to the immense and forceful waves of the southern seas which strike fear in the local people, preventing them from heading out to sea. It may also possibly be related to the fact that they originally hail from the hinterlands of
Wikipedia.com. Accessed on 9 July 2010, at 7.21 pm Western Indonesian time.
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Converting the unproductive sand land into productive land that produces almost 50 tons of red chili per day. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
he day was 27 October 2008. Panjatan was all calm and quiet. Village roads were deserted. Chilli farmers were celebrating joyously at the eld. Children leaving for school. A group of strangers pulled over Daendels Road. They quietly approached several guard posts erected on roads leading to the village. Since news spread far and wide on the iron sand mining site in Panjatan in 2006, chilli farmers have resolutely rejected the presence of such activities. Chilli planters under PPLP KP (Kulon Progo Sandy Land Farmers Association) have fought against the excavation site by staging a mass protest targeting Yogyakartas provincial parliament, relevant government oces, Kulon Progo district government and Kulon Progos local parliament. On 27 August 2007, in front of thousands of protesters, Kulon Progos district head and the parliamentary chairman had given their words to call o the iron sand mining project at the southern coast of Kulon Progo. The willingness of both ocials to bring an end to the project was demonstrated in the signing of a statement of support in rejection of the mining activity. As armed in the statement, should the district head or the parliamentary chairman reneged on their promise, they would resign from their positions.2 On 1 March 2008, the local people of Bugel, Panjatan blockaded the community-built village road heavily damaged by the passage of project trucks carrying materials for PT Jogja Magasa Iron (JMI). The road blockade aimed to send a message to Kulon Progos district head and parliamentary chairman who had
Java, deeply-rooted in their agrarian tradition, thus the disinterest in the sea. These are indeed likely reasons. I once worked as a sugarcane cutter and pumice gatherer, recalled Sukarman. On a certain seasonal cycle as night blankets the sky, local citizens thronged the nearest beach, not to work on the farm or to set sail but to hunt for grasshoppers. Thousands of grasshoppers migrate to sandy land, the reason for which is uncertain. These insects aord the local population with the opportunity to earn a livelihood. I hunt for grasshoppers and sell them to as far as Gunung Kidul. One kilogram of these insects can fetch Rp 20,000, informed Sukarman as he recounted his earlier occupation. The lines on his face reect his journey in life etched in time. I dont know why but after the chillis thrived on the sandy land, there were not as many grasshoppers. Theres probably no more left, all eaten by humans, he laughed out so loud that it almost made the walls of his house quiver.
***
http://awalpraludi.blogspot.com/2008/11/penambangan-pasir-besi-kulon-progo-di.html Accessed on 6 July 2010, at 9.18 pm
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earlier declared their support for local residents in rejecting the presence of the mining site in Kulon Progo. On 23 25 October, PPLP KP organized a sit-in protest at Kulon Progos parliamentary house. Protesters however failed to meet with local parliament members who did not respond to the farmers protests. That afternoon, the unidentied people wrecked seven guard posts at the village, set aame another guard post and the house of a local resident who rejected the operations of the mining site. Banners emblazoned with words rejecting the project were destroyed by the group of outsiders. Local residents who became aware of the incident immediately left the eld and returned home but the perpetrators had disappeared from the village. The community is being criminalized. The people are being provoked, but we will not be provoked. They have also spread lies, for instance by accusing that a member of the local community is working for the mining company. The intention is to provoke us into quarrelling with each other, said Diro. According to Diro, based on the spatial layout of Kulon Progo District, its coastal zone is allotted for tourism and agriculture. But things changed when the mining project materialized. The local community was not informed on when changes were made to the districts spatial layout. No information was disseminated to the public. Diro, who had once taken part in a protest rally at the national parliament in Jakarta, went on to say that the proposed mining location has now been identied as uninhabited critical land. See what has happened now, is the coastal area considered as critical land? Data has been manipulated and that information has even reached Jakarta, Sukarman asked questioningly.
After more than 20 years of successfully cultivating dryland, Kulon Progos coastal land is indeed far from being considered as critical land. It is instead productive land that sets in motion the local peoples economy, even contributing to the local governments coer. On Tuesday, 4 March 2008, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Kulon Progo district head and PT Jogja Magasa Iron (JMI) have signed a memorandum of understanding on the iron sand mining project at Kulon Progos southern coast. The work contract has identied 22 kilometers of coastline area across Galur, Panjatan, Temon and Wates as well as ten villages, namely Banaran, Karangasem, Garongan, Pleret, Bugel, Glagah, Palian, Sindutan, Jangkaran and Karangwuni as the exploration zone.3 JMI is established through the foreign direct investment scheme. 30% of JMI shares are owned by PT Jogja Magasa Mining from Indonesia, while 70% are under the ownership of Australias Indomines Limited. In the past, if 4 or 5 of us were to gather and discuss like this, we would surely be under the watch of intelligence. The situation is fairly calm now. But things are dierent in Garongan, an outsider entering the area would denitely be interrogated, said Sukarman. The calm ambience at Panjatan is not the usual kind of quietness. Along the main road (local citizens named it Daendels Road) heading to Bugel Hamlet, one can easily spot the words No To Iron Sand. These protest slogans are nailed to trees that ank the roads. The posters were
http://www.tempointeraktif.com/hg/ nusa/2009/03/24/brk,20090324-166386,id.html Accessed on 9 July 2010, at 10.09 am
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put up again by the local people. That afternoon, tension remains high in Panjatan. Sukarman then reaches for a piece of paper and sketches the intended location of the iron sand mining project. The site ends at the river, and excluding Glagah it stretches across 22 km of land. The distance from here (Sukarmans house) to the beach is 1.8 km; its much nearer from Garongan at roughly 1.3 km. Moving inland from the sea, the site stops at Daendels Road. How did the number three thousand hectares come up? The chilli elds would only amount to 500 hectares. Not all 1.8 km of the area is tanah merah. Part of it is Letter C land, private land owned by the people. Sukarman paused momentarily. If three thousand hectares of land is being used for iron sand mining, then this includes part of the peoples land. And even that would not total three thousand hectares. From where did they conjure up the area size to be three thousand hectares? If they intend to deceive us, they shouldnt have been too obvious. We in fact are already aware of the situation, he added. If the Priok 2 incident is repeated in Panjatan, we are not afraid, Maryono said condently. The Priok incident refers to the forced eviction of residents in the northern part of Jakarta in mid 2010. Citizens were driven out of their homes to make way for Indonesias largest seaport area. Eviction victims fought back and the situation escalated into violent clashes. In putting up a resistance, the chilli farmers of Panjatan have formed PPLP KP. The Yogyakarta arm of the Legal Aid Institute provides counsel for the farmers during the entire ongoing legal process. If the government intends to replace Kulon Progos iconic product with other commodities it is really simply to cater to the personal
interest of state ocials. The people of Panjatan refuse to support this; Panjatan has already established its uniqueness at the national level. Kulon Progos chillies have gained widespread popularity. It is not easy to elevate a local commodity into a national trademark. Chilli farmers have built Kulon Progos image from nothing. Before any assistance was oered, chilli farming has already thrived, and help from the local agricultural oce has made it ourish even more. In the past several years however, the local oce has ceased oering assistance. Ocials from the local oce probably fear of being demoted or transferred, explained Diro. In terms of the economic aspects, chili farmings production cycle until its distribution process already involves an unbelievable number of people. From a rough estimate, 35 chilli farmers groups will each have at least 100 members. The number of farmers therefore totals 3,500 people. If the average number of members in a farmers household is three people, the total would be 10,500 people. For a single harvest period, an average of ten pickers is required by a farmer who owns an average of 2,000 m2 of land. Workers needed for a single harvest period therefore, total 35,000,000 people, excluding tillers, manure handlers from Bantul, cattle feeders, and packagers before the chillies are transported to other areas. How many tens of thousands of people can the iron sand mining project absorb? These are the people who will be deprived of their livelihood. And denied of their right to live? We remain vigilant. If anything happens, we are prepared! Diro stated rmly.
oOo
Translator by Leni Betinni Achnas
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A portrait of Jhoni Sakbana, Nyong SoE who works as a street vendor in Oebobo village intersection, Batu Putih Sub-district, South Timor Tengah Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Batu Putih Junction and the Nyong of Soe

By Ishak Salim
he drone of an incoming vehicle is faintly audible from the north. Dozens of youngsters were just about to stand as they tried to detect the source of the sound. They need to know whether it is an arriving bus or truck. Each was holding a brightly colored square plastic container lled with banana and cassava chips, boiled eggs and fried nuts in the palm of one hand. All at once they jumped to their feet as they were certain that it was the sound of an incoming bus. Two of them dashed to the middle of the road, ready to rush after the bus from its left side. The rest aimed for the right ank as the bus veered from a bend with a speed of roughly 70 km/hour before coming to halt 20 or 40 meters later. Like a pride of lions in pursuit of a zebra in the African plains, the teenagers race as fast as they can to catch up with the tail end of the bus about to stop a few meters ahead. The bus halts precisely in front of a police post and every one of its windows along with both front and rear doors are swarmed by youngsters selling their wares. None of them are allowed to get on the bus. It was an agreement reached among themselves. For those who could not get a window, they would have to move away and return to their initial position, sitting by the kerb resuming their banterings with others having a similar fate while regaining their breath after having had to chase after the bus. One by one the hands of passengers protrude out of the
window, reaching out for a packet of chips or boiled egg to stave o their hunger for the remaining distance of their long journey. This is the Batu Putih intersection or more popularly as Cabang. It is located at Oebobo Village at Batu Putih Sub-district in South Timor Tengah District, East Nusa Tenggara. And the vendors are known as the nyongs of Soe (read Soe). Cabang refers to the intersection that serves as the place of transit for hundreds of buses from Kupang en route to Soe in South Timur Tengah, Atambua and Besikama in Belu, Kolbano, Kefa in North Timor Tengah, or Timor Lorosae at the tip of Timor Island. Likewise for buses departing from the opposite direction in uninterrupted succession, making a brief stop simply to allow the Soes nyongs to earn a living from hungry passengers or those who just wish to enjoy nibbling on a snack along the ride. There are 60 of them, all males ranging between 16 to 24 years old and the number may increase double to fourfold during school vacation as well as Easter and Christmas holidays. They mainly come from various villages in South Timor Tengah, such as Oenai, Amanatun, Kualin, Soe, Amanuban, and Oebobo at Batu Putih SubDistrict. Some of them have arrived as early as four in the morning when buses from Kolbano begin to arrive at the junction. One of the vendors, Jonni Sakbana (21), wearing a t-shirt and white cap with brown checkered shorts, has rejoined the other nyongs at the
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front entrance of a shophouse situated at the junction, owned by a Buginese trader. Dark skinned Jonni has curly black hair, typical of a Timorese native. He threw a smile to his friends, showing rows of straight white teeth with traces of red from chewing betel leaves several hours ago. Teeth that looked well-maintained and clean. Blue ip-ops already wearing thin protect his feet as he ran on scorching asphalt. He had in his grasp several twenty thousand and ten thousand notes, but mostly in one or ve thousand denomination. The money amounted to Rp 180,000, a decent gure accumulated until that afternoon as he would be able to earn Rp 18,000 from a ten percent share he is entitled to. The young hawkers again parked themselves at their place of rest after the bus departed to Besikana. Several of them can be seen counting their money earned until mid-day. Determining how much money to save for the next few months as Christmas approaches and they must return to their native village, bringing with them hard-earned income for their waiting families. Jonni has two younger siblings living with their father in Oenai Village of Kie Sub-district in South Timor Tengah. He recalled on how he had to leave his siblings when he was merely 11 years old. It all began on a tragic night in 2000. His mother was going through labor pains and about to give birth. Oenai Village at the time was shrouded in darkness in the middle of the night. There was no midwife to assist the delivery. The pain had become unbearable. Jonnis father hurried out to look for anyone who could help him get his wife to the nearest public health clinic in Oinlasi at Kie Sub-district. He came across a bemo (three-wheeled taxicab) willing to bring Jonnis mother to the clinic which would take almost an hour to reach.
It was already one oclock in the morning when they nally arrived at the clinic. Alas, it was too late. Jonnis mother breathed her last breath before she could deliver the baby. Eorts to save the unborn child began at once. The newborn was brought to the world after a nine-month tranquil existence in the mothers womb. The infant cried momentarily before he too succumbed to death.
***
oon after the the deaths of both mother and child, one of Jonnis uncles, Thomas, invited him to come along with him to Oebobo Village. Jonni was then in grade four in primary school and had to quit school in order to be able to self support himself. His father was only a small farmer like any other adult in the parched land of Oenai Village. The piece of land that his father owns is far from adequate in meeting the familys household needs. Going to school, located miles away, not only imposed a burden to a child like Jonni, but also dozens of other children his age and even hundreds more living in nearby villages such as Tumu and Oinlasi. For the younger generation of Oenai, leaving school and moving away from the village is a certainty. Uncle Thomas taught Jonni how to earn money at the Batu Putih intersection, the place where Jonni sells banana and cassava chips, boiled eggs, fried nuts and bottled mineral water to passengers in every bus that makes a stop there. Jonni stayed with his uncle for several weeks. He was then placed in the hands of a young woman named Imelda Raja who was then only 22 years old.
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Imelda had recently opened a weekly coee stall for visitors at Batu Putih market every Monday. From this modest business, within a certain period, she managed to save Rp 100,000. She used this money to start a new line of business. She capitalized on her cooking skills to make an assortment of cakes and snacks including banana chips. Jonni became Imeldas rst foster child to help her sell cakes at the Cabang. Jonni was almost 12 years old. In 2004, Imelda married Dominicus Mael (31) and was blessed with a daughter named Irna Mael (5). Her business ourished and six other nyongs from Oenai Village stayed with and worked for her. She could now aord to purchase a motorcycle through a credit scheme by paying Rp 2 million as down payment and Rp 752,500 for monthly installments. Gradually, the small family also managed to build a house with bebak wall panels. Noticing the success of her business, one by one her neighbors also relatives from the Raja lineage began to follow in her footsteps. They include the Alfonsa Raja household, wife of Yeri Pale, a civil servant at the local agricultural oce with the help of ve nyongs. Also the Reimondus family who took in six nyongs, three of whom are still schooling at Oebobo. Then the Andarias family with four nyongs from various villages such as Kualin and Amanuban. Finally, the Theodorus household assisted by four nyongs, all of whom have quit school.
red basket, running as fast as he could once a bus lled with passengers from Kupang appears from the direction of Jembatan Panjang Welmina, 50 meters before the junction. After ten years in the trade, Jonni has bonded with several other anak jual under Imelda Rajas care. Jonni has now approached adulthood. He has reached the age of 21. He begins to ponder on what his future holds. A similar concern also felt by other nyongs who have been selling at the junction from a tender age and have now matured. Youngsters come and go one after the other to ll the intersection and only Jonni at his mature age remains to be a constant presence at the junction, still working for Imelda. Jonni has brought along many of his relatives and neighbors to work as anak jual. All of them are younger than Jonni. Several of these anak jual treat their work at the Batu Putih junction simply as a stepping stone to a better existence. They sell their wares and save as much money as they can. Once their savings reached several hundred thousand rupiahs, these young males will leave for Kupang or migrate beyond East Nusa Tenggara crossing over to other lands such as Kalimantan, Makassar or even Malaysia. Leksi Isu (18) and Alfon (17), anak jual from the villages of Oinlasi and Oenai also have their own dreams to fulll. They are saving money to buy a pair of one-year old young pigs to rear. I want to rear pigs, Leksi says thoughtfully. He has collected Rp 600,000 and needs to save to at least Rp 2 million. This amount is enough to buy two pigs, each at a price of Rp 1 million. Leksi has two younger siblings. He must set aside a portion of his savings for his two younger sisters still at primary school in Oinlasi. Another example of the profound sense of duty among these youngsters toward their family and siblings.
***
onni has a small physique compared to other anak jual or young sellers a local expression that refers to Soes nyongs or the snack hawkers. His lanky arms carrying a
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Most nyongs return to their native villages once every 3 - 4 months. They bring along gifts for members of the family in Soe (capital city of South Timor Tengah District) in the form of sugar, coee, cooking oil and other kitchen necessities. It is also expected of them to hand out clothes to each family member.
rental car from travel agencies drives through the area after 7 pm. All street hawkers will then return to their respective parents for a much earned rest, watching television or packaging the next batch of snacks until 10 pm when utter exhaustion nally sets in. They will repeat the same routine tommorrow morning and this continues each and every day.
***
onnis daily routine is to be constantly immersed in work. Working hours are long and rigorous. He has to wake up the latest at 5 each morning to help Imelda boil eggs together with other anak jual. Another more time-consuming duty is to individually wrap banana, cassava and chicken feet chips as well as egg-coated fried nuts into small packets. Work can now and then start much earlier if he has to rush to the Cabang by 4 in the morning to wait for the Kangen, Logam Mulia, Cahaya Baru and Keraton buses from Kupang en route to Kefa, and the Bina Makmur bus also from Kupang but bound for Niki Niki. Other buses will incessantly pass through the intersection from 6 am to noon. As the time nears 7 am, Jonni takes his bath before arranging a variety of snacks onto a red square container and prepares dozens of packets of each snack placed into separate large red plastic bags. At exactly 7 am, after drinking a warm cup of tea, he and the others set out to Batu Putih Junction. Towards noon, he and two of his friends will return to the house for lunch and a short rest. They take turns for their lunch break. After lunch, Jonni heads out again to the Cabang; running after buses, chatting with friends, dashing again, counting his earnings and rushing to and fro until no other bus or
***
ominicus Mael looks furious as he notices one of his helpers playing with marbles in between the time waiting for a bus to drive through the Cabang. He is so extremely irritated that he struck Yanto (18) hard with his right st. Fresh blood gushes from Yantos nose, soaking his white t-shirt. Yanto crumples to the ground and dare not retaliate. Other anak jual stood around in silence, afraid of pulling away an enraged Dominicus who has been Yantos foster parent for the past three years. His anger still evident in his tone of voice. But there were no more blows. Yanto collects his wares. Returning the spilled packets of snacks one after the other into his blue basket. He rises to his feet and crosses the road, his head bowed while occasionally wiping away the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. Dominicus was not annoyed at Yanto for playing marbles but for the gambling involved in the game. The incident became a valuable lesson for Soes young sellers who stay and work with Dominicus Mael, husband to Imelda Raja. They have fostered a special bond. The youngsters are not treated as cash cows or mere laborers by the couple. Both husband and wife are committed
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A passenger buying Jhonis snacks. The money amounted to Rp 180,000, a decent gure accumulated until afternoon, but he is entitled only to ten percent of the income, namely Rp 18,000.
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In full speed, Jhoni is running to chase after the bus stopping at the Batu Putih intersection. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
to share the responsibility of being parents to the children who had turned to them for work. These youngsters are there to earn a living for their families back home at the barren and impoverished village of Oenai. They came with a dash of hope of freeing themselves from an illfated existence after their last option to pursue an education is no longer possible. They are the ones whom relatives turn to when a family member falls ill or is in grief. It is expected of them to return home with money for the family as that is indeed the sole reason for them to leave their homes and village. If they squander their money on wagers, it will be a calamity for them as this would mean failure for Dominicus and Imelda.
The work environment created by the husband and wife team is somewhat of a dierent setting. Imelda, like any other foster parent in Oebobo Village has set a ten-percent wage from what the sellers can sell. What sets them apart is the arrangement in which earnings are not given directly to the nyongs but instead are safe-kept by Imelda to be handed over in their entirety when they decide to return to their native villages. By doing so, the young sellers will always have the money to buy gifts for family members or other necessities such as during Easter and Christmas celebrations, or even for donations in the event of the death of a relative or when one of the family has taken ill. If they can sell 200 packets a day, they would bring in Rp 200, 000 and Rp 20,000 would be
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theirs. In addition, Dominicus now and then will check with their parents on whether the anak jual have brought home their entire earnings. This serves as a control mechanism, and a consequence of Dominicus well meaning intention that he has chosen to make real. Some foster parents prefer not to adopt such management approach. They opt to allow their anak jual the freedom to use their money however they see t, but always watching over their charges and reminding them to set aside money for unexpected needs in their native village. The role designated to these foster parents normally addressed as Om (uncle) or Tante (aunty) is the legacy of a local prominent gure known as Om Yok, who founded Persaju (Persatuan Anak Jual) or the Young Hawkers
Association of Batu Putih in 2001, but was defunct since the end of 2005. These foster parents however, are fully aware that their charges also harbor their own dreams and aspirations. These young sellers will eventually leave for they cannot be expected to stay with their foster parents forever in Oebobo nor can they depend on their source of earnings from the Batu Putih junction for the rest of their lives. New recruits from all corners of barren land and from poor families will endlessly turn up one after the other and those who have grown into mature adults will generally choose to seek work elsewhere once they have accumulated sucient nancial capital. They must have enough savings as it would be impossible for them to leave without
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being nancially sound. Imelda refers to them as children from families of Nasib Tak Tentu (a play of words from the expansion of the name of the abbreviated name of the province, NTT or East Nusa Tenggara) or uncertain fate. For Imelda, her business undertaking is not purely for meeting her familys economic needs but indeed more than that. It has become a social mission amid the adverse condition of many local residents of South Timor Tengah, a parched mountainous area where employment opportunities are scarce. As they are being deprived of the prospect of furthering their formal education which could be valuable to them in the future, so let there be no more setbacks for the nyongs of Soe in securing decent work and in their endeavor to seek a better life away from home. The youngsters are not the only ones spending long hours working. Imelda also uses most of her time working outside and inside the house to prepare all that is necessary for selling her products. She must either buy bananas from the market or go to farmers willing to sell hands of bananas at a lower price. She brings the fruit home and prepares to make chips. Together with Maria, a young woman from Oebobo who also dropped out of school, Imelda must peel the bananas and prepare a mixture of spices and coloring to enhance the chips avor. They then fry the banana chips in hot oil, removing any excess oil and packaging them all day until evening arrives. When her products are in high demand, she uses the time spent for resting to continue with unnished work. They will keep on working until sapped of any energy left and take a rest at the kitchen where Imelda and Maria works. Cigarette boxes are arranged to function as a sleeping mat for them to lie on.
he crimson sky brings a dierent shade to the stretch of road and buildings on the Batu Putih intersection. Dusk sets in. One by one the young peddlers return to their respective homes. All have left except Alfon Taopan, Leksi, Obet, Edi, Polce and Jein. These nyongs from Oenai still await the last bus to pass through and stop in front of them. Eli from Amanatun also remains at the junction, selling not only chips but also carrying two copies of the Kupang Pos daily. He is engrossed in counting the money earned from todays work. Beneath the tamarind tree in front of the stall run by Om Syam from Rote who has been selling at the junction since 1983 and where nyongs from Soe obtain their bottled water to sell, Ricon from Amanatun, Juni from Kapan and Okto from Oebobo can still be seen to be hanging around. They are engaged in a friendly banter, sitting on a long wooden bench. In a while, these youngsters will leave the location, turning Batu Putih Junction into a deserted place, the sound of their feet running after buses can no longer be heard for the night. Ocial vehicles from local government oces from Soe (capital city of South Timor Tengah), Kefa (capital city of North Timor Tengah and Atambua (capital city of Belu) time and again speedily pass through. The passengers in these cars are surely oblivious to the dynamism of the nyongs economic self-reliant approach, local youths who each day have to struggle on their own as the government fails to keep them in school as the education system lacks the necessary school buildings, teachers and other support facilities. When these young hawkers have all left the junction, dozens of trucks hauling eight tons of manganese excavated manually and bought illegally by multinational corporations, drive through and halt at the police post. Occasionally, one or two trucks are detained until the next morning when tons of manganese are unloaded
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at the back of the police post. Many of these trucks however, succeed to easily pass through because of bribes or someones backing. It is rumored that the Timorese people collect manganese from their farms and sell them at Rp 1,000 for each kilogram to dealers. From these dealers, truckloads of manganese ore will arrive in Kupang and fetch Rp 1,800 per kilogram. The sold manganese will then be transported to some other country to be processed into iron rods for a more protable price. Manganese has
now become the most important commodity for many Timorese. The night grows darker. Silence falls on the Batu Putih intersection. Soes nyongs are sound asleep on their make-shift mats made of cartons. While manganese-laden trucks continue to pass by.
ooOoo
At night Jhoni prepares the snacks neatly and he will sell it in the morning. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Prohibition sign to avoid toxic gas from the mud lake. Lapindo Mud disaster was caused by technical error during the oil & gas exploitation by PT Lapindo Berantas. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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The Brave Woman in Lapindo Embankment

By EM. Ali
wo little girls wearing scout uniforms scratched a circle on the Lapindo Mud embankment ground using ice cream plastic spoon. There is a bright line of happiness on their faces. A big woman is looking at those girls from 3 meters distance, sometimes also looking at the Malang-Surabaya road that lies about 20 meters below the embankment; hoping that there will be a car stopping by the side of the road. The black helmet she used to restrain the heat was still hanging on her head. A grey worn-out bag was athwart on her waist, with four VCDs grasped tightly in her hand. The sun was burning out the day. Dusts ew every which way. A dry wind dragged the stingy toxic chemical stench of Lapindo Mud. A group of visitors came down from their car, followed a dirt road, holding on to bamboo fence, and came up to the top of embankment. A group of motorcycle taxi drivers came to welcome them. The woman with the waist bag also joined the other drivers to welcome them. They oered their services to go around Lapindo Mud embankment. But no visitor wanted to use their services. One by one, all drivers went back to their post, bunched up, and hoping that other visitors would come. Once the drivers went back, the woman was the only person who kept insisting. She kept talking to one of visitors. She patiently told the story of how the Lapindo Mud disaster destroyed her
house, destroyed her village. She also showed them VCDs she was carrying. She pointed her nger occasionally to the center of giant embankment that kept on spouting toxic gas. After a moment, they went down, back to their car and left the embankment behind. No visitor wanted to take a motorcycle taxi all this day long, she said. There was no complaining tone in her Madurese1 accented voice. She, Muawanah, 44 years old, is one of the woman motorcycle taxi drivers in Lapindo embankment. Her friends who also work as motorcycle taxi drivers are all male. But there are no awkward impressions in her gestures. She is so relaxed. Her body is big for a woman but it does not hamper her when carrying out hard activities under Sidoarjos bright sun. Muawanah is still active and energetic hunting visitors who want to use her motorcycle taxi service to see the giant Lapindo Mud volcano that never stop sprouting. There are three women motorcycle taxi drivers here. This is the only job that I could do after my house sunk. I have to feed all of my children. I came from Jatirejo village. There is a mosque, and then a house beside it, there is a red-white
Madurese is an ethnic and dialect group in the Province of East Java.
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ag in front of it. That was my house, she said pointing her nger to the center of the mud pool. A bamboo ag-pole still stands straight with a worn-out ag agging on its point. Muawanah came to those two little girls that were wearing scout uniforms. They, Sutriyani 10-years-old and Suprihatin 8-years-old, are her daughters. Dik, lets go home, she said to them, using the Madurese nicknames. Those two little girls came to their mother, huddled up, hung on her arm, and at the same time walked to her black motorcycle which is parked on motorcycle taxi line on the embankment. Before getting to ride on the motorcycle, Muawanah called Eko, her oldest son, who also worked as a motorcycle taxi driver on Lapindo embankment. She asked Eko to go home with her. Her and her sons motorcycles rumbled and left the embankment. Muawanah has four children, three daughters and one son. All of them were born from her second marriage. She has no child from her rst marriage. Her rst husband was a gambler and a drunkard. Maybe that is the reason why they could not have a child. Muawanahs husband was a chicken trader in Keputran Market, Surabaya. Her husband told her to stay at home and prohibited her to work. She took her cousins child as foster child because she felt lonely. But her husband opposed her decision, he disagreed, because her husband wanted his biological child from Muawanah. But Muawanah still held out to take a foster child. At the moment, she has three foster children; all of them have their own family and live in Surabaya. In her loneliness, Muawanah took the time to go shing. I went shing when my husband went to work and came home before my husband arrived at home, she said laughing. I was shing
in Kenjeran, at the sea with my male friends. Nobody else got any sh, but I did. Muawanah took the decision to divorce with her rst husband because she was prohibited from working. Then she married for the second time. Her second husband passed away in 2001 because of a liver disease. Since then, she became a female householder with her four children. Her rst child, Eko, has nished his studies at the Mechanical Engineering School (STM), her second child didnt continue her studies, and the two younger children are studying in the Elementary School near the Lapindo embankment. Muawanahs motorcycle stopped in front of a sturdy permanent house with a ceramic oor. Muawanahs daughters got down from the motorcycle. A young girl, Dian, 16-yearsold, came out from the house to welcome them home. She took care of her little sisters immediately, and asked them to change their clothes. I live in this house recently, less than six months. This house is bought using the compensation money from Lapindo Brantas for the land and house sunk by the mud. I get a 15,000,000 rupiah installment monthly, but it has been delayed for the past two months. I dont know why and whether there will be installments. She began telling the story of her ne new house.
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n 29th of May 2006, a technical mistake occurred during explorations carried out by PT Lapindo Brantas in Sumur Banjar Panji 1 (BJP 1) Siring Village,
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Being a victim of the Lapindo Mud disaster does not reduce the familys spirit and optimism in facing their present and future life. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Porong Subdistrict, Sidoarjo Regency, East Java. The result of this mistake was the emergence of hot mudows and the sinking of Siring Village, Besuki Village, Jatirejo Village, Kedung Bendo Village, Reno Kenongo Village, and its surrounding areas. Nineteen villages, 15 factories, 33 schools, six Islamic boarding schools sank and 14,000 families lost their normal livelihoods2 Thousands people lost their houses, job, and they had to live in evacuation camp. There was a long debate about Lapindo mudow. PT Lapindo Brantas claimed that the mud ow is caused by the Yogyakarta earthquake in 27 May 2006, but other parties said that the mudow was caused by a technical mistake (human error). This unnished debate also meant an unnished debate about who should be responsible for the victims of Lapindo mudow. At a world geologist forum held by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in London, United Kingdom and Cape Town, South Africa, many geologists came from across the world to discuss six papers delivered by presenters. Geologists found new evidence that Lapindo had made an operation mistake. Lapindo was careless when put casings in and failed to close the well, then mud sprout out.3 Although the debate about disaster or human error was not over, the Presidential Regulation No. 14/2007 established the Sidoarjo Mud Handling Agency (Badan Penanggulangan Lumpur Sidoarjo/ BPLS). BPLSs duty is to undertake all eorts related to the mudow problem, including social and infrastructure problems using funds from the State Budget. 4
Muawanah did not give up; while saving the money from the compensation, she also takes many dierent jobs. She now enjoys living in her own beautiful house with her children. Many of Lapindo victims cannot aord a new house. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
There was another decision prior to this, namely the Instruction Letter of Investigation Termination (Surat Perintah Penghentian Penyidikan/ SP3) of the Lapindo mudow case, issued by the East Java Regional Police. This Instruction Letter proclaimed that this case was legally closed by order of the Supreme Court (MA). This Presidential Regulation is in contradiction with a previous regulation that the mudow management would be handled by the Central Government based on Keppres No. 13/2006 on 9th of September 2006. Based on this regulation, budget for handling the Lapindo Mud Tragedy should be paid by the PT LBI, not from the State Budget. Along with the court decision, the Lapindo mudow was acknowledged by the government
http://www.korbanlumpur .info/berita/lingkungan/639-kejahatan-sistemik-bakrie.html, accessed on 15 July 2010 at 01.42 pm http://www.korbanlumpur .info/berita/lingkungan/377-para-ahli-geologi-simpulkan-pengeboranpenyebab-semburan-lumpur-lapindo.html, accessed on 14 July 2010 at 12.45 pm http://beritapers.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/4tahun-tragedi-lumpur-lapindo-sudah-2-8-triliun-
dari-apbn-yang-dikuras-pengusaha-lumpur-lapindopt-lapindo-brantas-inc/. accessed on 13 July 2010 at 03.00 pm
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as a natural disaster, not due to human error during the exploration process by PT Lapindo Brantas. Perceiving this decision, Supardi 37years-old, who is an ex-motorcycle-taxi-driver and now is working at a lawyer oce in Sidoarjo, said that: If they categorize it as a disaster, its hard to get fair compensation, because compensation for a natural disaster only 0,5%, but 100% for human error. He is one of many victims who has not received compensation. This disaster not only reected the weakness of the government in facing up to the Bakrie Group, but also caused thousands of people to lose their jobs and suer constantly in their own village. The Lapindo Mud victims try to survive in their own way, including by nding new jobs on the Lapindo Mud embankment. There were not many motorcycle taxis in the beginning, only one-three of us stayed here. But then many people came and asked, Mas (salutation call for Javanese man), how could we get there?, I said Its far, let me accompany you there.. Then they gave me money. From that moment, Ive got the idea to turn this into a job. An idea emerged to request for a permission from the BPLS and from the Regent to form a group of motorcycle-taxi-drivers, said Pardi. Amid the hustle and bustle of visitors who want to see the Lapindo mudow, Muawanah only saw a dierent activity from the ones she usually carries out. A fellow villager came to her and said: Mbak (salutation call for Javanese woman) Nah, better for you to work than always get angry at home. What kind of work? Become a motorcycle taxi driver on the embankment. Many friends of us work there. Im not that brave. What if I fall down from the motorcycle? But you always take other people for a ride on your motorcycle, dont you? Its impossible for you to fall down.
Muawanah started to pay attention to the motorcycle taxi drivers and most of them are her village-mates. She learned how they attract visitors, how they tell stories about the Lapindo mud tragedy. Muawanah thought that she could do this better than all of drivers could do. Then she resolved to take on being a motorcycle taxi driver as her new job. But at rst, there were ocials who didnt let me do this. I said to them If you want to feed all of my children, I wouldnt do this job. Better for me to stay at home. Its hot and smelly here. Finally, they permitted me to be a motorcycle taxi driver, she said laughing. During the rst year of the Lapindo mudow, there were 200 victims that became motorcycle taxi drivers, but now there are only 50 drivers left. The number of drivers keeps on decreasing because the number of visitors has also declined.
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ater was seeping. The embankment has broken! It has broken! Muawanah was surprised when water rushed into her house. She jumped up and shouted out loud. The rst thing she remembered was her children. She ran to bedroom, carried her children and took them out of the house. Outside of her house, panic spread out like re meeting gasoline. The screams were screechy, and Jatirejo people ran out of their houses and tried to save whatever they could grab. It was at 3.00 pm, a month after the rst Lapindo mud eruption, and the Ring 1 embankment had broken down. Muawanahs house, which was only one km away from the center of scolding and exactly beside the embankment, became a target for the water. At 6.00 pm, the water was already waist-high. Not only water, but also some smelly hot
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mud seeped into her house and lled up to Muawanahs house halfway. From a higher place, Muawanah saw her house sink slowly and she felt very sad. But, she was also grateful because all of her children were safe. They were confused about where to live. In their panic, no one had thought about where they would go to. All of the people just stared their houses and their belongings disappear in a very short time. A village authority asked all people to come to the Pasar Baru Porong (traditional market). The market building was still under construction and hasnt been used yet. Without thinking twice about it, Muawanah and the other villagers went to the market. She occupied a 4x4 meter room with 14 others, including her children. In another kiosk, there might be between 10 to19 people in one room. It was crowded but better than living under the sky. I was the rst person who lived in that evacuation area in Pasar Baru Porong. We ate food donated by other people. Previously, I cooked for them; I was very sad because no one cooked. I made noodles and wrapped them. No one helped me. Of all of those evacuees, it was only me cooking. The others: some felt stressed and others were angry all the time. The head of the district also came to the evacuation area, to the public kitchen. I received some help for a month from the army. I have never slept inside the kiosk. I slept on the front pavement. I was afraid of the other embankment breaking down. I was afraid to sleep; I was afraid that I would have to run and bring my children, I was in a panic and all I could bring was a pillow, Muawanah told the story when she was in the evacuation area, smiling. The disasters didnt end there. Her son, Eko, became ill because of the unsanitary public
kitchen and the lack of clean water. He got sick, critical typhoid. Muawanah brought him to the public hospital in Sidoarjo, but there was no immediate care. The hospital asked for a letter that indicated her as a victim of the Lapindo mud ow. Muawanah was fed-up. When she was going to leave the hospital, she met a man. He boarded near her house. He was alone. Muawanah took pity with this man and she gave him food for some time. What are you doing here, Yu Nah? he asked. Muawanah told him the story about his ill son and the hospital that hadnt taken any action to help him. The man was so angry and complained to the hospital. A moment later, he turned his head to Muawanah. Well, it is better if you go home and manage all of those letters. Ill take care of your son here, he said. Muawanah left the hospital immediately. When she came back, the hospital had taken care of her son. Muawanah felt so guilty. She was busy managing the public kitchen and had neglected her own children. Nonetheless, she was grateful because her son could be taken care of in proper time. I lived in the evacuation camp for seven months. During that time, my life was depending on being a motorcycle taxi driver and selling VCD of Lapindo mudow. There is a Rp 300,000 living allowance for each person per month. I received Rp 1,500,000 because I have four children, Muawanah explained. Muawanah didnt give the living allowance money directly to her children. Muawanah saved it in her savings account. She only gave Eko, her oldest son, Rp 50,000 a month so that he could nish his education at that time,. Eko had to manage with this money for a month, school
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Muawanah brings her customer around the Lapindo mud lake. She struggles building her expectations despite living near the continuous toxic gas and mud eruption. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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payment excluded. She gave money in small amounts to her two children in Elementary School. Several months later, Muawanah was able to buy a motorcycle for Eko. He uses this motorcycle to pickup his little sisters if Muawanah is working on the embankment. He also uses it as a motorcycle taxi, joining his mother on the embankment. Eko helps his mother to take care of their familys burden. I am a motorcycle taxi driver since I was in grade 2. I usually work on Saturdays and Sundays, and pickup my sisters on the other days. I want to help my mom, even if it is only a little. Eko said. He is reticent and always obeys his mother. He is very concerned with his life because of severe poverty. After seven months of living in the evacuation camp, Muawanah got a house rental allocation for two years for about four million Rupiah. She rented a house in Perumahan Gempol (Gempol Residence) for a year. It is a small 21 type house. The conditions are much better than that in the evacuation camp; at least her children are more comfortable in this house. But in the rainy season, the oods always reach their rented house. Inevitably, they couldnt aord to rent a better house because it would be too expensive. Muawanah lived in that rented house for four years with her four children. One day, when there was a deluge, water came into their house. Her neighbor said that there are many catsh in river, in front of their settlement. Muawanah, who likes shing since she was a child, didnt miss this opportunity. She and Eko went to a small river in front of their settlement and brought their shing rods along. And its true, she got one bucket full of catsh in a very short shing time. The catsh came from a pool near the settlement, water
was overowing and many catsh swam in the stream. Many people squeezed on the edge of the stream and were shing. Let the rain come again and again! Let the rain make a ood so that we can keep on shing! she prayed when the stream began to recede. Her naughty prayer was heard and a heavy rain fell down for the next two days. Every afternoon, after sunset prayer time, Muawanah went shing. She always came home at 3.00 or 4.00 am. Ive got two big buckets full of catsh, she laughed out loud. I sold them to my neighbors. When the catsh price in the market was about Rp 13,000 per kilogram, I sold it for only Rp 10,000. I could buy rice and give some provisions to my children from this income. When the pool is dry, there are no sh at all, she continued her story, laughed out loud until her laughter lled the living room. Muawanah gets bored if there are no visitors on the embankment, which feels hot with smelly toxic gas. When faced this situation, shing is a great form of recreation for her. Fishing became her habit since she was young and it made her an expert in shing. Women and shing might sound weird, but it isnt for Muawanah. In her shing group, she is sometimes the only woman. But it doesnt matter to her because she already knows all of her shing friends and Eko always accompanies her. Before going shing, one group consisting of 10-25 people will rent a car. They share the cost of renting a car among themselves, usually paying about Rp 10,000-Rp 20,000 each. They go shing in Lamongan, Bangil, or Surabaya, depending on which place is the best at the time. Sometimes Muawanah and her friends go shing at a shpond and they have to pay Rp 50,000 for one time entrance permit. But, often
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she doesnt have to pay because Eko is familiar with the shponds owner and its enough if the two of them just pay for one person. Mama rarely pays when shing because almost all of the attendants know her, Eko commented with a smile about his mothers shing hobby. Her neighbors often buy her sh. I dont x the price. I am new person in this village. Its up to the neighbors how much they want to pay, I am very pleased. Sometimes they give me Rp 5,000 or Rp 10,000 or Rp 20,000. Its pretty fair, its income for my family, she said laughing. She doesnt go shing all day, since her everyday life depends on how often she drives her motorcycle taxi on the embankment. Muawanah doesnt hope anymore for installment cash from PT Lapindo Brantas. There has not been any more installment cash for the past three months. They said this month I will get it, but Im not sure, she said defenselessly. The most important thing is that I have to keep on working for my children. No matter how much I can receive In 2009, the compensation payment for land and housing came out, but it didnt mean that the problem has been solved. The rst compensation was 20%, but then we had to wait for a long time to get the remaining 80% that would be paid on monthly basis. Then, we mobilize rally to demand our rights, at least to get a fairer compensation. Some people demand for cash and carry scheme. The Lapindo mud victims are divided into four schemes. The rst is relocation to Sukodono. The second is for people who lived in a housing complex that was wiped out by the mud, they will get relocation compensation. The third is an installment scheme, where the victims move out from the area and their compensation would be paid in
installments. And the last is for the association of the victims of Lapindo mud (paguyuban); this association gets organized to demand their rights. For this association, they havent got any compensation because they asked for 100% in one payment, said Muawanah, one of the people who hasnt got an installment in the last two months. When the rst 20% installment was paid, the government-Lapindo team requested 1% of it; then they asked for another percentage when the Rp 500,000 for building installment was paid. Its kind of government disease; if an installment is paid, they want to get a part of it. That makes us annoyed. They do nothing if the installment hasnt come out and they dont want to help us, her voice stressing her displeasure. From the four compensation schemes, it was only a cash and carry scheme that was rejected by the government and PT Lapindo Brantas. A group of people gathered and formed the GEPPRES movement (Gerakan Penegakan Perpres 14/2007 / President Regulation 14/2007 Maintenance Movement) and they want 100% payment of compensation, without installment. The mudow area map or disaster map is divided into two parts. People who live in the embankment location which has been covered by the mud will get compensation directly from PT Lapindo Brantas and for people who live outside the embankment it is the governments responsibility, with the funds taken from the State Budget. PT Lapindo Brantas appointed PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya (MLJ), which is its sister company, to pay compensation to all mudow victims. In the end, there were only three compensation schemes, and even they did not go smoothly: relocation in Sukodono, relocation
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compensation for the victims from housing complex and installments. I only received compensation for the house and the land with the size of the house, but I received nothing for the yard, Muawanag added. When they lived in the rented house, one day Muawanahs old mother asked: you want to buy your own house, dont you? If you buy a house, then may I live with you? That question jerked Muawanahs heart. Thats right. How long would they live in that rented house? Its better to live in ones own house rather than in a rented house. Muawanah tried to gather information in order to nd a house. She is so economical that she still has savings from the compensation installment. I was oered a cheap house near the embankment. But I dont want to live in that area, its so traumatic. Its better to nd a house further away from the embankment. Finally, she chose a house in Rejeni village. Its 5 kilometers to the west of the embankment. Unfortunately, when she bought the house, her mother passed away and never lived in her daughters, Muawanahs, house. My mother passed away in Sukodono, in my sisters house, she said with tears in her eyes.
Now, it does not stink as much as before because we are already immune to that smell. The rst time Lapindo erupted, the stench was so strong. The children felt dizzy when they were in class, some of them even vomited, Mrs. Siti said, a teacher who has been at that school for three years. Her old school is buried under the Lapindo mud. In Mrs. Sitis opinion, one of her student was killed about two years ago by the gas. Firstly, her student felt dizzy and then vomited. The students parents took their child to hospital. The child in the end passed away in the hospital. The hospital and family considered it to be a normal accident. Maybe there is a link to the Lapindo mud. Maybe, but I dont know for sure, Mrs. Siti wondered. Both of Muawanahs children still study at that school. I am traumatized. But, Im also worried about my children because it would be hard to adapt on new environment of a new school. Also, Sutriyanti has almost graduated from elementary school. But it is possible for Suprihatin to move to another school near our house after her sister has graduated, she reasoned. For a year after the Lapindo gas pipe blew up because of a drilling mistake, free health care was provided for the students. The childrens health condition was checked up every month in the nearest Puskesmas (Public Health Center), but it lasted for no more than a year. After that, if there are health problems, it is their parents who will pay the medical treatment fee. Meanwhile, the Sidoarjo Regency Education Body (Dinas Pendidikan) also did not pay attention to the elementary school which is about a kilometer from the Lapindo mud
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wo of Muawanahs children Sutriyani and Suprihatin played in the schoolyard while they were waiting for their mother to carry her friend, a motorcycle taxi customer. The stench of gas from Lapindo reached the schoolyard.
A mother called Muawanah, one of thousands of victims of Lapindo mud disaster. She works as a woman motorcycle-taxi driver. Her house was sunk in the mud. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
embankment. Given the unpleasant conditions, in four years, the number of students at that elementary school decreased. Now, there are only 46 students in grades 1 to 6. Mostly parents moved their children from the school because the location is near to the embankment and it was traumatic for them. WALHI Ekda Jatims research about the heavy metal content and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) concentrations shows that concentrations are above Indonesian health standards standard. Cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) concentrations exceeding Indonesian health safety standards were found in over 20 sample spots in 2007/2008 with average concentrations reaching 0.3060 mg/l or 100 times above the safety standard set by Health Ministry Decision no.907/2002 which is only 0.003 mg/l.
Chromium (Cr) and copper (Cu) concentrations were however below the safety standard limits.5 Crysene PAH was found in every research spot. In the short term it will not cause cancer or tumor directly, but may cause lung cancer, skin cancer, and urinal cancer in ve until ten years in people who have been exposed to it for more than eight hours. One can only imagine the impact on motorcycle taxi drivers who have to inhale the gases every day. There has been no action from the government to protect the Lapindo mud victims. This neglect can be seen from increasing disease gures
http://www.korbanlumpur.info/suara-publik/646empat-tahun-bersama-racun-lapindo.html accessed on 12 july 2010 at 09.00 am
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in Porong. Based on Puskesmas data, 46,652 people were recorded as ISPA suerers in 2007, an increase of two times from 2006 when only about 23,000 people were recorded. Bad water quality also was reected in increasing numbers of female medical patient with maternal health problems. In 2008, the data was well recorded in the health post established by the Puskesmas of Jabon on the ex-Besuki highway evacuation camp area.
oer them their services and to sell VCDs. One by one, the motorcycle taxi drivers got back to their posts, but Muawanah still continued. She kept trying to communicate with the visitors. When the visitors got back down, she smiled. Alhamdulillah, I made Rp 20,000. They bought two VCDs, she said calmly. She cannot keep the prot from it for herself because, in the beginning, there were ve people who had the idea of selling VCDs. Therefore the prot she got should be divided fairly. Each person got four thousand rupiah. So that we could share our prot, Muawanah said about sharing prot decision in this group. If there are other people who can sell VCDs, Muawanah will also get a share of the prots fairly. But the motorcycle taxi income is all for me. As a female householder, Muawanah is an agile woman. Her big body is not a burden to carrying out all of her activities. When she picks up her children at Jatirejo I Elementary School, she does not go home directly. Muawanah has to carry other students, her childrens friends, to their homes. Those children become her motorcycle taxi customers. If there are no visitors on the embankment, no income from my motorcycle taxi and selling VCDs, at least I get Rp 10,000 from my motorcycle taxi customers. She is very grateful. After coming down from the embankment, Muawanah got back to the school, picked up her children and brought them home. But sometimes, she only goes to the school to transport her customers. While Eko will pick up his two sisters and bring them home, Muawanah goes back to the embankment after carry her customer. She works on the embankment until at 02.00 pm. After that, she
***
fter she took her children from school and rested for a while, Muawanah got back to the embankment with her children. Twilight came down on the west horizon. Dust ew every which way from the MalangSurabaya road where there is a trac jam almost every day. Right after Lapindo had blown up, the road became the main connection to Malang and Surabaya. The old highway through Gempol was shattered and buried under the mud. Now there are some people who live in evacuation camp along that highway with modest roong homes. Actually they have received the installment but they dont want to move. Then they expect visitors to pay a kind of aection for them. But I dont want to do that. Many people have received installments but they couldnt buy a house and still live in rented houses. They spent their money for having fun, like my nephew did, Muawanah said about that evacuation camp. Some visitors got down from their car and came up to the embankment. Muawanah and a group of motorcycle taxi drivers approached them to
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went home and prepared to transport her two children to go reading the Quran at the nearest mosque near their old rented house in Porong. The distance from their new house to the mosque is quite far, its about 10 km and it has become her routine, except on Sundays. I want my children have a balanced education, not only basic formal education, but also religious education, she said. For someone who was not able to complete her elementary school, Muawanah has a modern and tough mind. Childrens education is a priority for her, even though she has to work hard to get money. When her children are reading the Quran, Muawanah goes back to the embankment, stopping by, and hoping to get a customer for her motorcycle taxi to see the Lapindo mudow. Recently, there have only been few visitors. Its not that bad to earn Rp 10,000. Sometimes I
earn nothing for a one long day. Thats why we call it an eort, sometimes we can earn money and sometimes we cant, Muawanahs spirit never ags. Muawanah saw the Lapindo mudow, which is covered by white smoke. She sighed,I hope my children will be successful people and highly schooled, and can reach their aspirations. And if theres another fortune, I want to have my own variety store, in front of my house. Twilight came down in the west horizon. There is no bright red reection on that giant embankment. There is only the bad stench. When Maghrib completed its twilight, Muawanah got back to her motorcycle seat, started its engine and went home.
ooOoo
Translator by Octavia Pramita Purwaningtyas
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Ibu Maria has to teach two classes at once in one classroom while caring for her own child. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Spirit of Service in the Savanna

By Ishak Salim
he asphalt road was bending, dividing the broad expanse of savannah which was as wide as the sea. Only one or two cars passed by, roaring, leaving dust in the blue sky. Sometimes six-wheel trucks travelled between the villages, equipped with a number of long chairs resembling inter-city buses. Of course, the bus had no windows like the usual buses. The driver simply added a tarpaulin and chairs. The vehicle was full and several people were standing at the back of the truck. In a wooden house, a small family gathered on the terrace of the stilt house which was as high as one meter. Their heads followed the vehicle. Except for the children, all were chewing betel and areca. Their mouths were red and they kept chewing until it tasted sweet. Once or twice they spat on the ground where Bujang, their brown dog had curled up, sleeping comfortably. Beside it, a fat cute piglet was sning the ground for food. Some chickens disturbed it so it ran wagging its little tail towards its black heavy mother. The truck that had been turned into a bus had gone past. The familys members no longer saw the vehicle. This was Laindeha Village, District Pandawai, East Sumba. A village with a carpet of savannah as far as the eye could see. Residents reared large and small livestock such as horses, bualoes, cows, goats, pigs and chickens. Their horses were just being freed in the eld, and occasionally checked upon. If you were lucky,
you were able to see this herd of horses from the bend of road, so beautiful was the scenery of this village. However, when it was hot like today, those animals would usually shelter under one or two trees in the distance. Not far from the wooden house owned by that small family stood an mbatang uma (traditional house) belonging to the indigenous clan chief whose surname was Dita Mbara but who was called Teol Wohangara. He was 78 years old. That night, on the terrace of his house, he covered himself with a long cloth similar to a black blanket. His eyes looked glazed and his face wrinkled. He held the blanket tightly. Since a few days he had felt feverish. Behind a wooden door that still looked solid, his old mother sat, aged two hundred years, her name was Kahi Timba. Her gaze was much more wistful and dim. She could no longer walk and was so worn with age waiting for another realm to receive her. In this house, there was a con being kept where a family member lay who had not been buried for these two years. There had been no traditional agreement yet amongst the family. Teol Wohangara said it in Humba language, it was barely audible. He himself had no children, though he had three wives and two of them were still living in this uma mbatang. Like his sister who lived next door to this traditional house, Teol and twenty other elderly people with the same surname were still holding strongly on to their beliefs, Marapu, an
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indigenous belief of Humba people from many kabihu (surnames/clans). However, he was the last head of Marapu generation that might end soon. One by one, family members from his brothers began to embrace Christianity which arrived eleven years ago into this village. He was unable to stem the transition to this belief and indeed it might no longer be containable. In this situation it was already so dicult to maintain the old beliefs since the settlements had been consolidated from being separate to being united. In the late 1980s, the government, as generally happened in many villages in Indonesia, forced families one by one to move from their settlements which were far from each other to the edge of this paved road. Since the move, people from the towns came one by one and introduced ornaments of civilization to them. They began to adopt the various machines, various electronics, Indonesian language, ideology, and nally a new religion. Teol Wohangara surrendered to this situation. Marapu for his clan was like under siege with the arrival of the new civilization while he himself wanted to be tanggu marapu which was hidden quietly in the attic of this traditional house; mamuli, kanataru, halaku-lulungu, lamba, tabilu, and as silent as his brothers body in the con there who was tired of waiting for the Earth to accept him. One after another the scraping of descending Humba beliefs was felt by him. His gaze was melancholy, but as if it penetrated far away into the vast expanse of eld in front of him which seemed limitless. But he was not bothered by this change. Every person lived their own time. About a hundred meters to the north stood a house which served as a church and Sunday school for Christians and their children. Initially,
this new doctrine was brought by an evangelist from Waingapu, and this church was founded in 1999. To its left there was a house that had almost collapsed and was owned by Om Welem, the assistant bible teacher. He lived with his wife Maria Mayharabi (32), and their two children who were still toddlers, Mona (3), and Difani (6 months). Dark. There was no light from those two buildings. They were carrying out services in the residents houses they had promised to visit, delivering the sacred message of the Father in heaven. Preaching the truth and to a certain extent changing the old pattern of life from animist to monotheist. However, the evangelists did not only bring religious teachings.. There were other more important things that he had been guarding to this place. The anxiety of Om Welem and several other young men like Ferdi Tanggumara and Joni Maramba Tana had been unbearable. Imagine the children from Laindeha village who had to go to school many kilometres away, similar to those who were coming from other villages such as Milipinga, Laitandu, and Utakeraha, which were nearly ten kilometres away. In fact, if there was school in Laindeha, at least the children could easily access it. At that time, their spirits were scattered and one by one they left the school activities and then stopped going altogether. The three then had discussion to nd a way out. At the end of September 2003, there was nally a consensus, and the villagers were invited. Various considerations for building a school for children in this village were delivered. The elders who adhered to Marapu initially hesitated to support the decision. Their worry was that this would only increase the Christianizing eorts. However, the voice of the young people was
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insurmountable. Their activity in the Peoples Organisation of Nduma Luri (for living) was undisputed. The children of this village had to attend school, they thought. In addition, the founder of Nduma Luri was a respected Marapu adherent, Randa Pakar. Considering the importance of education for their children, the Marapu elders nally approved the plan. At rst they wanted to create an elementary school. After considering the capabilities and resources they had, they decided to start with a kindergarten. In addition, at the time, there were no people who had graduated from junior high school yet in this village. They would use the church as a learning place outside the time for worship. They also would take advantage of Sunday school for the sake of learning and playing for students who were interested. On October 1, 2003, the kindergarten was established by them. They invited the head of district to attend the inauguration, but the ocials did not come. Om Welem, Ferdi Tanggumara and Joni maramba Tana become alternate teachers. On the rst day there were 36 kids who were excited to attend the school. Some of them were carrying a book bought especially by their parents. Of course these three young people were smiling. They never thought that they would become teachers for their little brothers. Om Welem asked them all to come in. One by one they entered and sat at a long wooden chair provided for them. The introduction then began. But what would be the rst days lesson? All three looked at each other. The children who came to this church were not only toddlers, or at least seven years old, but there were those who were 12-14 years of age and who should be in junior high school. Ah, how eager these kids were. They wanted
to go to school and enjoyed their days in their school chairs. Luckily, the Peoples Organization of Nduma Luri donated a white board and some board markers for the teachers. So the debut lesson on that sunny Wednesday began, and satisfaction radiated from all of them, the teachers and the pupils. In two days they would meet again. As agreed before, they scheduled the teaching and learning activities for Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In addition, on Sundays, the children could follow the Sunday school which contained the deepening of the teachings of Christ by Om Welem, the assistant bible teacher of Laindeha. The school day did not go without a hitch. Problems reached from the writing equipment to the welfare of the teachers. It was undeniable that they were in the critical age of their thirties, where the necessities of life became more complex and required a solution almost every day. Initially, they intended to implement the school payment system in which they would charge the parents. However, because the parents themselves were small farmers with nancial problems, thplan was not implemented. They then tried another way in which, according to Om Welem, was also viewed with pessimism, using government channels. Om Welems attitude refered to lack of government attention to education in East Sumba. The local government budgeted only 5% for education and the channels of education for the savanna villages which were far from Waingapu were of course was limited. But this was the most likely choice to make. With great eorts and patience there should be some yield. This was how Om Welem encouraged himself. Late in 2004, he began to call some friends who sat as members of the district parliament. He was lucky, at the time when he was trying to win the hearts of the parliament members,
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came a woman from Laindeha who had just returned from adventure in Bali. She was willing to help teaching in the kindergarten. Her name was Maria Mayharabi, the daughter of an old preacher. To Om Welem, this was the starting point to understand how the politicians played politics for the education budget. He wanted to see the opportunity. Actually, two years earlier, the peoples organization of Nduma Luri had submitted a proposal for a few times regarding the establishment of a school in Wendibi village to the government. Because the government did not respond to it, the initiative to build a school in the village was taken by Om Welem and his friends. Along with Om Welems eorts to lobby the parliament members of East Sumba, some elders in Wendibi village were proposing the splitting up of the village administration. Laindeha was part of Wendibi Village administration. The elders in Laindeha village where the church and kindergarten activities were carried out were in opposition to the indigenous King (Maramba; head of village) who rejected the splitting up of the village. The strong current for splitting up was unstoppable, and the government nally prepared Laindeha as a new village. Shortly after the government formed Laindeha as the new village (a village in preparation), in early 2005, the government with the consent from local parliament of East Sumba, granted the request of the peoples organisation of Nduma Luri to establish an elementary school for this new village and the surrounding areas. Knowing this, Om Welem unceasingly express his gratitude to the Father in heaven. Apparently, the king, after failing to maintain the integrity of the village, wanted to take primary school development plans proposed by peoples organisations of Nduma Luri. In
a village meeting, Om Welem came up and challenged the plans of the village chief. The head of the village wanted the school to be built in Wendibi, the main village. However, Om Welem insisted. He felt that the head of village forgot the history of this school constructions proposal and how the eorts had been pioneered by the young people of the peoples organisation of Nduma Luri. Then, what if we vote to decide for the location? The village chief oered the solution after a long debate about who was eligible for the school. Om Welem smiled sarcastically, Whose rules are being used so that a decision is taken through a voting? All members of Nduma Luri protested against this way. There was no way out then until the government nally decided that the school was for Laindeha village. Once again Om Welem was grateful with the decision which he thought as fair.
***
he name Wunu Ngita Amah certainly would not be known by the children, alumni of the kindergarten, who were now sitting in fth grade of Laindeha Elementary School. These children knew him as Om Welem or simply called him as teacher. Actually, Om Welem was not a native Laideha inhabitant. He just found his way to Laindeha for the rst time in 2002, after attending years of education for prospective assistant bible teacher in Waingapu. He completed his primary school in Palindi and secondary school in Waingapu. After secondary school he did not
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proceed to the next level because of nancial reasons. Then in 2001 he went for Non-formal Education Course, C package, and joined a course for assistant bible teachers in Kawangu. Initially, based on the church councils decision, he was placed in the Kambata Tana village, but because Yarep Blegor, an assistant Bible teacher who dedicated himself to Laindeha village, decided to take care of his wife who was very ill and being treated at a hospital in Waingapu, he then chose to devote himself to the Laindeha sub-branch. Institutionally, GKS Kawangu was responsible for several branches and each branch was responsible for several sub-branches and posts. In the Laindeha sub-branch, which was under the Palinding branch, Om Welem guided about 105 congregations of mostly teenagers. Laindeha sub-branch did not have any posts because the provisions for establishing any post did not qualify for it. The function of the sub-branches was to help the posts in evangelization activities, while the posts were established in the villages with high numbers of Marapu followers. To make social interaction easier with services location, the church established divisions, and one of them was diakonia division. It was this division which was active in interacting with peoples organisation of Nduma Luri in Laindeha which had been established in 1999. Even now, because there was high belief in the spirit and sincerity of Om Welems work, he was trusted to be the chairman of Nduma Luri. In 1999, at its inception, the church was involved through the assistant bible teacher, Yarep Blegor and its role was considered to be big enough. At that time, outbreaks of cholera struck the East Sumba, including this village. Nine people in Laindeha village (then still Wendibi Village) had died. To increase social strength and capital,
a group of young people founded the peoples organization and called it Nduma Luri which meant for living. Other names also oered at that time were Bibi Ilih meant the appeared one and Mbaha Hati or joyful heart. Since its establishment, it was decided that members meetings would be held every month on the eleventh, and membership dues amounted to one thousand rupiah per month. Then, various social programs, which came from outside sources, began to shape the character of this community organization. At rst, several health care programs were started, such as free medical treatment to reduce the number of cholera victims, combating infectious diseases, mosquito net provision, building family toilets, and livestock and agriculture programmes such as the Protection of Spring (PMA), vegetable cultivation, irrigation, crescent distribution, and distribution of goats. Support from foreign agencies was from several countries in Europe and America, such as GTZ from Germany. This was then followed by programs from CD Bethesda, Pelkesi (Christian Health Services to the community / YAKKUM), and others in the following years. In the process of development, all village youths were members of Nduma Luri. However, in reorganization eort in 2006, it was found that only 52 members were really active in community organization. In year 2007, based on members consensus, Om Welem was appointed as the head of the new Nduma Luri.
***
n a Sunday morning, Om Welem was already preparing himself for worship that day. He took the Bible, the book
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This is a portrait of elementary school in Laindeha Village, Pandawai Sub-district, East Sumba Regency. There is only one school and few teachers. But, all of children are enthusiastic to go to school. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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note, and a worn piece of HVS paper. He took out a black pen from his blue shirt pocket. He started to write some introductory sentences and then looked for references of verses in the Bible. Just when he nished writing a few sentences, Difani, his youngest daughter cried. Maria Mayharabi the woman who was once willing to come back from overseas to help him realize the dream of education had become his wife - was boiling water in their slum kitchen. The walls of woven bamboo were dusty, eaten by termites scattered here and there. In the left corner of the kitchen, there was a door connecting to the backyard. The rusty brown zinc door was only supported by fragile wooden blocks full of termites. There, beside his wife, Om Welems eldest daughter, Mona, was enjoying playing in the kitchen. She was just two years oldborn on May 19, 2008. He left the paper and pen and picked Difani who still hoped for the mother. He kept carrying her and Difani still could not stop crying. He was very worried about Difani who had just recovered from her illness in these few days. Difanis body which was just eight month old was so vulnerable to fever and every time her temperature was high she would get fainted. There was a night she was fainted up to nine times. However, Difani was laughing now because Om Welem was smart in teasing his daughter. He enjoyed that morning. A few days later, he would see the departure of his wife and two children to live in Karera, a place ranged hundreds of kilometres away from Laindeha. His wife had just passed the exam for candidates for Civil Servants (PNS) and was now appointed as a public servant. As an honorary teacher at Laindeha governmental elementary school, the local education ocer seemed to put him in there. Close friends of Om Welem who
knew the territory for placement asked him to take care of moving his wife to the Laindeha elementary school. But he rmly refused. For him this was a form of real devotion. If you want to serve, you should be ready for sacrice. If you do not want to sacrice, it is not serving. Om Welem continued to prepare his Sunday sermon. He wrote another few sentences. In his house, some of the corn he had harvested before was hanging from the ceiling. He also hung a few corns in the kitchen. The harvest yield this time was far from expectation, he muttered once to a guest visiting his house. The house they lived in was already more than ten years old and its condition was increasingly frail. Almost all of the building was made of bamboo. In some part of the walls had torn or loosed a few knots. He did not even have a decent room, no mattress, no wardrobe for the kids, no writing table, and even the living room had no chairs or table. The whole was far from adequate. But, of course it was not a problem for Om Welem and his family. Om Welem closed his notes of speech with a series of sentences. Let us live as children of light. In living as children of light, we must have a sense of obedience to God and also the sense of love for God and our human beings and use the time that God gave to us all wisely. Blessed are they who are listening to every word of God and do the word everyday in life. He did not read the entire speech anymore. Om Welem then folded his sermon notes and then put it into his blue shirt pocket. He grabbed a guitar that had stood at the bamboo wall. He peered out the window for a moment, trying to make sure the kids were there to attend Sunday school. The church building which was as fragile as Om Welems house was indeed side by side and both were still owned by the GKS Kawangu.
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Ibu Maria is teaching children on third grade. There is a lack of room on that school, so rst grade and third grade is joining together. They are using blackboard as a room separation and arrange desk and table in the opposite direction between rst grade and third grade. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
Madam Maria was carrying Difani and holding hands with Mona while accompanying her husband. Since deciding to support the learning activities in the kindergarten run by her husband, she saw that this was the decent man for her. That condence had made her refuse the oer of her nice employer to return to Bali to look after their children. She in fact felt comfortable living and working in Bali with that Tionghoa family becoming a baby sitter. owever, the real comfort was living with the man in front of her now. In front of her, she saw the guitar on Om Welems shoulder moving to the rhythm of his steps. The Bible bound in dark blue was clutched tightly by him. Difani seemed to be jumping up and down joyfully. Her laughter was high-
pitched and her little eyes unblinkingly looked at the kids who rushed to the church ghting for the green plastic chairs inside. Om Welem stood in their midst, smiling to all the children. He put his guitar on his lap and was ready to invite all to sing.
Happy ya ya, happy ye ye ye Im glad to be a child of God, The day become a memory, the night become a dream My love, becomes more shining ooOoo
Translator by Dian Utami Putri MDGs as My Development Goals
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Eko and Sinar Mas, which has put Eko with pride at the top of many races. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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The Failing Life of a Juki Cilik

By Ishak Salim ko is skilful in washing Sinar Mas, his horse. Now and then, the boy would caress the head and look into the eyes of the horse that he is washing with a calm stare. Sinar Mas is not making a lot of movements so Eko can easily clean the body of this brown horse. According to Hendra, foster father of Eko, Sinar Mas is a potential horse one or two years later. He has the signs of the best race horse, among others; the esh of his thighs that is tender. He also has a pusar kuda (circle-like dot) right in the middle of his neck that can only be found in the best race horses. For horse meat lovers, raja ono is also a cutting sign for slaughtering a horse and this sign can also be found in the body of Sinar Mas. This horse also has unyang jaran or a horse crown that means that he is persistent. There is also timbang mas or horse wing which is a sign of the balance of the horse while running. Sinar Mas also has pusar mulut which is a sign that this horse is kind-hearted. As such, during a horse race, the possibility that this horse would crush the fence is almost unlikely to happen. Before, from 2005-2010, Eko rides Jauh di Mata, the horse owned by Hendra that is always the champion in every class that he joins. With Jauh di Mata, Eko became the champion in many main jaran (horse racing) competitions and obtain big amounts of money and prizes. When he became the champion in a tournament and obtained one goat as a prize, Hendras family
was able to hold a ceremonial banquet when Eko, as a Muslim, was circumcised. Not only this, with the money he obtained, Eko could not only aord to buy his own daily necessities, he also helps to lessen the economic burden of his family. He bought clothes for his younger siblings, a study table, and many school necessities every year. Of course Eko has been enjoying his profession ever since. He loves horses very much. He lives in an environment where horses are part of the cultural structure of his village. Ever since, the grandfather of his grandfather is a Sandro Jaran (Dukun (traditional healer) or an expert on horses). His small friends are juki (jockeys) and the adults enjoy watching main jaran with or without bets. Now, after having a profession as a juki cilik (young jockey) for ve years, Eko is no longer joining the prestigious tournaments in Sumbawa. He only goes to tournaments during the training session wherein many horse owners asked him to ride their horse. When there is a tournament, the owner of Jauh di Mata still joins the preliminary session that does not have an elimination round. His age is almost twelve years old and he will continue to grow. In this situation, the horses in Sumbawa that is smaller compared with the horses in Sumba whose posture is high and bigcould no longer carry his weight in every round. Furthermore, new jockeys who are also skilful and whose body weight is lighter have emerged.
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After giving Sinar Mas a bath, Eko put the grass that he gathered since morning inside the papang (washbasin where the horse food is placed) and mixed it with water. If there is a tournament, this horse food can be mixed with the multivitamin consumed by people, like, Extra Joss and Hemaviton and honey and the egg of a non pedigreed chicken is also added. After feeding the horse, Eko tied his horse on the branch of a tree that is higher than the head of the horse with the hope that the horse would not graze anymore for the training this morning in Langam Karato (horse track); about 20 kilometres from his house. If there is a horse race, it would be better if the horse would refrain from eating too much grass. Several minutes later, Eko brought Sinar Mas home. The distance of that place to his house is about 2 kilometres. He passed through rice elds and rocky roads until he nally reached the yard of his house. As soon as he got home, the penjiwaan of the horse starts. Penjiwaan is the term used during the process of bathing a horse by a Sandro or horse dukun (traditional medicine man). Half whispering, the mouth of the Sandro chanted an incantation. He reached for a pot full of water mixed with banana leaves that he boiled at dawn earlier. He poured the water in the pot on the head of the horse and the horse immediately shook its head and splattered the water drops on the hair of its neck. The morning sun is just rising. Its rays are still blocked by the house in front of it. Only half of their bodies are covered by the rays of the sun. For a moment, the sun rays changed and turned into beautiful colourful particles that only lasted for several seconds. After this, he put the pot on the lips of Eko and he drank two swallows of water.
After this, he stood right behind the back of Eko. For a moment, he glanced towards the direction of the sun that is slowly rising. His eyes are closed because they are dazzled. His mouth is still chanting the incantation that was passed on from his great-great grandfather, his grandfather, and his father. He placed the two hard palms of his hand on top of the head of the little boy. His eyes are still closed and his mouth is still chanting the incantation. He then blew very hard as if strength is gathered inside the mouth of this old man. Puah! The rst blow penetrated the crown of the head of Eko. Puah! The second blow penetrated the whole body that is covered with a grey training juki (clothes of a jockey). And puah! The third blow covered all the outside parts of Eko who is ready to ride the horse this morning. This is a form of protection for the Juki Jaran in Sumbawa Besar. Its primary function is to protect the juki and the horse from the disturbance of other sandro who have bad intentions, including the sly actions of the other juki who would attempt to make his opponent fall from the horse by using a dangerous technique in riding a horse. During a jaran tournament, some parties try to trick a juki cilik to cheat. For the bad sandro, his main task in this race is to make the horse owner who paid him win. This kind of sandro has two common ways to do this, namely; make the juki fall from the horse and harm the jaran. The method varies and sometimes it is horrible. The strong sandro can easily perform his task and he can even harm another sandro who is protecting his juki and his horse. In a competition, it is not unusual if a dukun suddenly falls to the ground and never gets up again. ***
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ko Saputro was born in Lape on 31 August 1997. He is the son of Syaifullah Daming and Maruwiyah. When he was born, he went through the most critical time of his life because he is an infant who is suering from malnutrition. When he was still less than two months old, his mother just left him to his grandmother. His mother chose not to take care of Eko and went to Saudi Arabia to become a migrant worker like most of the women in Sumbawa. In this situation, his grandmother, Kamariya, decided to take care of her grandson as best as she could. She knows that Ekos father, who is always sick and who died later on because of his sickness, cannot take care of Eko. During the rst two months of treating Eko, Eko ate porridge and drink starch milk made by his grandmother. Now and then, Hen, as the foster father of Eko is commonly called, would buy Eko SGM 1, powered milk for infants, when he obtained the money he earned from taking care of horses. He would also buy the medicines that Eko should drink during the dicult times of his life when he is suering from malnutrition. Twice a month, his grandmother would bring him to the hospital for check-up and she would give him a supplementary vitamin like Tonikum Bayer. During the second year, the condition of Eko became better. In this house, only his grandfather and the family of Hen who is blessed with two children are left. For Hen, Eko is like his own son and the children of Hen feels that Eko is their brother. When he was still small, Hen was also a juki and when he became a teenager, he decided to become a horse caretaker and a trainer of race horses. When Eko was four years old, he started to teach him to love horses, which is part of the culture of the Sumbawa people. Like most of the children at his age in this Karato hamlet, Eko starts his
daily chores by taking care of jaran (race horses). Everyday, together with Hen, he would go to bara, give jaran a bath and feed his horse with rebu guren, horse food from ungin or dedak that is mixed with a type of rumput kawat. According to his grandfather, Eko is very patient in doing his daily chores. At that time, Jauh di Mata, the racing horse owned by Hen, is already in the OB class, which is, a horse that is already two years old with a body height of 115-116 cm. In Sumbawa, a racing horse has a class based on age, body height, and number of teeth of the horse that has grown. A horse that is one year old with a body height of 112 cm is categorized as TK 0 class. This is the lowest class of race horses in Sumbawa wherein the horse is still young and still has milk teeth. After this is the OB classwhich is the class of Jauh di Mataand Harapan A Class wherein the horse is 3 4 years old with a body height of 116 119 cm and the number of teeth that were lose and grew into adult teeth are four. When the eighth teeth of a horse grows and the horse is already 5 or 6 years old and its body height is 118 - 119 cm, then the position of this horse is the Tunas class. This class is divided into two, namely, the Tunas A Class and the Tunas B Class. When the horse is already an adult and it is already more than ve years old and it body height is 120 cm, then it belongs to Dewasa A Class; if it body height is 120 123 cm, then it is categorized in the Dewasa B Class. Eko was six years old when he rst rode Jauh di Mata in Moyo sub-district. In this tournament, he and Jauh di Mata became the rst place winner and his prize is a Cosmos rice dispenser. With this victory, Eko is started to be known as a reliable juki cilik. In the next competition, Eko and Jauh di Mata succeeded to grab the title of rst place champion and won a 14 inch TV.
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His grandfather, Sahidullah Yesye, who is a descendant of sandro from Karato, decided to become the special sandro of Eko in order to protect his grandson and Jauh di Mata from the metaphysical disturbances of other sandro who intend to harm them. Fortunately, he inherited incantations that were passed down from one generation to another. He inherited it from his father and from his grandfathers, Yung and Sanapia. In every competition, he would always menjiwai Eko and Jauh di Mata by circling around them, sprinkling their bodies with the water mixed with godong kele that he cooked, and of course chanting incantations whose wordings are kept a secret. Since then, Eko would routinely participate in the tournaments that are held every month in Sumbawa and Lombok Island. Some of the places where he routinely joins the tournaments are: karato Langam in Lopok sub-district, karato Salanti in Plampang sub-district, karato Tanu in Alas Barat sub-district, and of course the City of Sumbawa. He even became the champion in some of these tournaments and the prizes he won varies. Some of the prizes that he won are: sofa, Olympic cabinet, Cosmos rice dispenser, a gold necklace that weighs 4 grams, refrigerator, TV with dierent sizes, from a 14 inch TV to a 20 inch TV, and several livestock. Aside from these, in every competition, Eko also obtains money from the horse owner and the spectators who won in the gamble because they bet on Eko and Jauh di Mata. Eko does not have to think about this money. Usually, Hen would give this money to his wife and motherin-law (Ekos grandmother) for the household needs and for the school necessities of Eko in particular, such as, school bag, books and notebooks, ball pens, school uniform, shoes, etc.
The one thing that Eko cannot forget is his victory in Alas Barat. This is because, for the rst time, with his own money, he was able to buy a bicycle. With the remaining money, he also bought several chickens that he is still raising up to now in a hut beside bara where the stable of Jauh di Mata and Sinar Mas is located. For most of the spectators in Sumbawa, manto jaran (watching a horse race) is an indescribable hobby. There, they can witness the skill of the juki cilik in riding their horse and a small number of people can channel their habit to gamble. According to one educator there, M. Amin Nur, Spd, the presence of the element of gambling in main jaran is a recent phenomenon that is not common before. Main jaran is just an expression of the culture in their environment where horses are one of the many animals and Sumbawa is their original habitat, just like in Sumba Island in NTT. In Sumbawa, most of the sub-districts have a karato and they are regulated by FORDASI (Federasi Olah Raga Berkuda Seluruh Indonesia) Sumbawa. The schedule of the competitions is arranged as follows: for the people who will watch main jaran, they will have to spend some amount of money. The price of the ticket is Rp. 5.000 to Rp. 10.000 and the parking fee for motorcycles is Rp. 3.000. Aside from the spectators, dierent peddlers also come in throngs in every competition. They set-up stalls and booths to sell their trade and they are required to pay a lease that amounts to Rp. 150 300 thousand rupiah per week. In every competition, the total number of spectators in general is about 700 to 1,000. For the participants of the race, the committee would require the horse owners to pay a registration fee of Rp. 200.000. Eko, as the best juki during his time obtains payment for his
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Eko is washing his race-horse, Sinar Mas. Since he was a little boy, Eko has become a little jockey to fulll his familys daily needs. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
skill that amounts to Rp. 50.000 for one liuk. Meanwhile, for every competition, at the very least, Eko will main jaran for seven to ten liuk. In one month, the contribution of Eko in reducing the expenses of their family is very meaningful.
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hat morning, after doing his Dawn prayer, Eko left mengaji (to learn to recite the Koran). The wall clock in his house, one of the prizes he won from the tournaments in joined, indicate that the time is 5:30 am. After wearing his baju koko and kopiah, he took a huge Al Quran and headed towards the back door of his house. The atmosphere is still dark. He closed the door slowly, almost without a sound. He walked towards the fence that doesnt have a door and
turned towards the direction of the river with a low tide. With skill, he jumped from one river stone to another. In a moment, he is already on the other side of the river and he walked with a little climb to the road leading to the house of Mr. Amin Biru. He is known as an Al Quran teacher in the Karato hamlet since the seventies. His house is not very far from Ekos house. At a crossroad, Eko saw Ms. Topik, his fellow mengajinya, sweeping her yard. He did not greet her and just continued to walk. Not long after this, he arrived at a Bugis panggung house. Eko took o his sandals and climbed up the stairs slowly. When he reached the door of the house that is still closed, he expressed a greeting. There was no answer. He repeated his greeting, louder this time. The coughing of Mr. Amin Biru is heard. He heard the steps of Mr. Amin and another cough. Since the death of his wife in 2003 due to acute diabetes, Mr. Amin Biru became sickly. According to his oldest son,
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Eko is getting ready to race at the start line. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
he is not only suering from asthma but from kidney stone and gastric pains as well. However, although he is sick, he never limit the number of children that go to him mengaji. The door slowly opened and Eko pushed it and saw the back of Mr. Amin who is heading towards the inside of the room. Mr. Amin never greets Eko so he will just proceed to go in the middle of the room and take his mengaji table. Not long, Mr. Amin is already wearing his baju koko, kopiah, and dark green chequered sarung. Eko has not yet started reading Basmalah when one by one, his friends entered. Yudi, Ari, Indra, Nepi, Nora, Ade, Topik, Ipan, Pik, and Imam joined him. The place suddenly became noisy and with enthusiasm, they read one verse after another in their respective reading. They dont know how Mr. Amin could hear it but it is almost certain that Mr. Amin would suddenly stop the reading of a child if the pronunciation of tajwid is wrong. However, unlike the mengaji teacher in the other villages in general who are strict in teaching their mengaji children, Mr. Amin is very humorous. His way of reprimanding his mengaji child would often make everyone laugh. Funny, remarked
Eko one time. He is very dierent from the general picture about the mengaji teacher in the land of Bugis where a strip of bamboo or rattan is used to teach the children so that they can learn how to read the Al Quran fast. Aside from the way that he teaches, Mr. Amin is not only teaching the children to read the Al Quran, he is also teaching them the basic practices in performing their religious duties. Every Thursday night, he would use the time after Magrib (sunset prayer) and Isya (evening prayer) to teach the children the correct way to perform wudhu (the ritual washing of the face, hands, and feet before praying), salat prayers, and the principles of Islam and faith. For Eko, like the fate of his schooling every day, his mengaji days are also interrupted because his juki activities. This is one of his problems, besides his other problems like, his safety in riding a horse that can lead to death. Because of this, some parties do not approve if the juki jaran in Sumbawa missed their activities. According to them, this is a violation of the rights of children, such as, the right to obtain education and the right to be secure in conducting activities. Jukis like Eko really feel that they will certainly fail
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to attend their classes for several days in one month with or without asking permission from their teachers. One teacher related that these juki children would sometimes asked permission to leave their class for three days. However, in reality, they will be gone for one week. For the big tournaments in Lombok or in Bima for example, they can even alfa for two consecutive weeks. This is also complained by Mr. Amin Biru. He said that, aside from the fact that Eko is basically an absent-minded person, often, his readings should be repeated because of his absences. In terms of the security issue in main jaran, Eko related many things. For him, riding a horse does not only require courage but skill and tenacity. He does consider himself courageous in competing with the other jukis. He mentioned the name of a juki who is courageous. His name is Ari, a close friend. Ari is the most courageous juki during the last four years of the triumphant days of Eko. He does not hesitate to do unfair and unsportsmanlike things in playing main jaran. He can make his opponent fall from his horse by pushing him in a very smooth way so it doesnt look like he cheated. With a special skill, he can even allow himself to be defeated although basically, he can win the competition. He can be paid, said Hendra One time, during a nal match, in a fraction of a second, Ari deliberately stomped the pekakas (horse clothes with colourful strings) of his horse so the speed of his horse decreased and the horse of his opponent went passed him and reached the nish line. For this incident, the horse owner rewarded Ari with abusive words. Ari remained calm; his smile shrivelled knowing that his cheating was revealed. But that is Ari, thats the way he is. This courageous child would not even
hesitate to make his opponents fall from their horses during a nal match. In riding a horse, those who are concerned with the rights of children oer several stipulations that are actually useful to jukis. The stipulation in using juki clothes, helmet, and ketopong (horse mask) will certainly reduce the risk of the juki when he falls from the horse. Another is the stipulation in using a saddle on every horse that would join the competition. The activists of FORDASI and several horse owners said that these stipulations can be enforced, although there are objections on the placing of a saddle on the back of the horse because this is not practical for the juki. One thing that the lovers of main jaran could not enforce in Sumbawa is the banning of the children from becoming a juki and only teenagers who are 17 years will be allowed to become a juki. For the people who know the size of the horses in Sumbawa, this idea is certainly amusing. The horses in Sumbawa are dierent from the horses in Sumba Island that are high, big, and sturdy so the youth who are in their teens or even in their twenties can ride a horse for racing. For the horses in Sumbawa that is small, let alone teenagers who are seventeen years, a child who is as old as Eko, thirteen years old, is already having diculties in joining a tournament. Now, at the most, Eko can only become a participant for fun and less than two years later, he can only be a juki during merobah (trainings) only. The argument of these right defenders is true of course. Several children in their teens have been harmed in the racing track. Eko remembered when his friend, Juni, died because he was thrown o from his horse. His head hit an iron pipes that are piled in the edge of the racing track. He also related that Maun, while
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competing with him suddenly fell from his horse and his head was trampled upon by the horses that are running very fast behind him. In Bima, wherein the competition are sometimes erce and tight between the juki and the bad sandro who mutually through a spell on one another can harm the horse and have a direct impact on the juki cilik. Broken ribs and leg, getting pierced by the bamboo fences, and being trampled upon by the horses are some of the risks that these jukis have to face. The one thing that is feared the most is the role of the sandro who would deliberately rub his opponents horse with bura oil. This oil is a concoction of black magic wherein the oil is a mixture of coconut and the human bones (the knee bones in particular) of a dead person that was obtained from graves that were deliberately dug in a cemetery. The bad sandro will then pulverize these bones and fry them on a Thursday night until its oil comes out. After this, an incantation will be read on this oil and it will become a bura oil. According to Sahidullah, the sandro who is always protecting Eko, one of the villages that has the skill in making a bura oil which is also the producers of horse dukuns is the Moyo Village. According to Sahidullah the sandro, the triumphant days of Jauh di Mata started to fade when a bad sandro, rubbed bura oil on this horse. The back of the left leg of this horse looks
lame after running one lap. Eko turned into a teenager and Jauh di Mata lose his speed. It is as if they also lose their superiority. Now, Jauh di Mata is just a breeding stallion for them to produce racing horse descendants. The rst born horse of this breeding stallion is Sinar Mas that is now under the care of Eko. He would take care of this horse until he is really ready to join the main jaran tournament here in Sumbawa Island. He is one of the fortunate juki cilik who owns a horse. Aside from this, a used cidomo in the back of their house will be repaired so that Eko can use it when becoming a juki could no longer provide an income for their family and Eko has to look for another source of livelihood. This is unlike most of the other jukis, after retiring from their juki activity, they dont have a follow-up activity that is related to horses. On the other hand, for Ari and some of his peer groups, they have an alternative after becoming a horse juki. This is one of the extreme faces of a veteran juki in Sumbawa Island. Now, the young people in this sub-district is aware of motorcycle races that use the service of hired jukis. They leave their lives as a juki jaran and become motorcycle jukis. Ari who has guts and Eko who is more lucky, each have a choice in their lives.
ooOoo
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One of Ekos spectacular actions during race. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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F ish bait made by Pak Jamaluddin, ready for shing in the sea. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Questions that Remain Unanswered for Tanjung Luars Fishing Community

By Ishak Salim
gentle breeze sweeps through the shing village of Tanjung Luar, Keruak Sub-District in East Lombok. A lively discussion is underway at the residence of Jamaluddin - a sherman in his 30s - amongst a group of shermen troubled over the increasingly dwindling sh populations for more than ten years in the shing zones close to where they live. Murdani, another member of the shing community, is also deeply concerned by the current shing situation and has decided to join the group. They were taking a much needed rest after heading out to sea since before daybreak and bringing in one or two tubs of sh for their wives to sell at the sh auction market not far from the village. Murdani was casually attired in a white t-shirt and green Buginese sarong. In 2007, he was the only sherman from Tanjung Luar who had paid a visit to the Batu Hijau mining site of PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PT NNT) in Sumbawa Island, in Sekongkang SubDistrict of West Sumbawa District, West Nusa Tenggara, situated 81 kilometers away from Mataram City. He explained in detail the process involved in the devastation of a gold-laden mountain as described by a professor representing Newmont who received the delegation from East Lombok (Lombok Island) had explained to them. Apart from a detailed account of the Batu Hijau gold exploration site, Newmont representatives also
asked Murdani to taste the mining companys tailings in order to demonstrate that the residue is non-hazardous to humans and sea sh. Murdani was however, doubtful of the proered waste. He sampled the tailings but was uncertain of what he had actually tasted. Its called waste, is there waste that is not toxic? Even though Ive tried it, I was still unconvinced as it might not be the actual waste, Murdani said as he expressed his suspicions. To ensure the proper sequence of his account, Murdani drew a sketch of the Batu Hijau mining site and the direction of three huge connecting pipes leading toward the two bays of Benete and Senutuk. The rst pipeline installed at Benete Bay (Alas Strait) functions as a water passageway for the washing of gold-bearing rocks. The second pipeline leads to Senutuk Bay for the disposal of tailings generated from chemical processes using various toxic elements such as arsenic and mercury. The third pipeline also installed at Benete Bay carries the products of processing gold-bearing gravels. Tailings that end up in Senutuk Bay are what Murdani believes to have contributed to the decline in sh catch in Alas Strait where the Tanjung Luar shing community resides and which it depends on for their livelihood. His group of friends listened intently. They began to relate between the newly-acquired information with the environmental phenomenon that they had endured in the
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past decade. Squids, once the mainstay of the local shing communitys livelihood, are now no longer in abundance. This also holds true for other sh species such as tuna, layah and layang which are currently hard to come by in nearby seas. Local shermen must venture farther beyond, across the passage to Meringkik Island at Alas Strait. Ten years ago, their wives and children could still manage to catch a glimpse of their husbands or fathers angling or setting up shing nets at the edge of the seashore close to their homes. Now not a single sherman has the privilege to do this. They are forced to set sail farther away to sea. Not only is it more time consuming but they also put their lives in greater peril. There is nothing else we can do but continue to live for today, its impossible to restore our earlier condition. In the past we did not have to go far to catch squid or sh. Skipjack tuna could be found merely half a mile from where we live. Between 1986 and 1990, the amount of sh that I could catch would allow me to make three haj pilgrimages to Mecca. Nowadays we are in a situation even worse than a crisis! grieved 38year old Murdani.
with the only option of waiting for the wind to subside and for other shermen who may pass by to assist them. On the rst day of drifting at sea, they waited in vain for help to come. Thirst and hunger pangs had set in by then. Only their heads could be seen bobbing on the sea surface and they had not had a single morsel of food. Suhadi prayed as often as he could. He thought of his heavilypregnant wife and his children. His two friends had grown even weaker during the second day adrift. Seeing them in that state, he refused to lose hope. But there was nothing left to do except to pray hard. And praying indeed was the only possible option. He repetitively recited the salawat (invoking bleassings upon Prophet Muhammad) when his thirst was unbearable and his body continued to dehydrate. He mustered the courage to drink seawater. Miraculously the seawater tasted bland and he felt a surge of energy. Thankful for the sudden boost of strength, he unexpectedly noticed a few strands of seaweed close to him. He tried to reach out to them. He knew that he should not be eating raw seaweed. The algae may be poisonous, he thought. Yet again he recollected images of his wife who may have given birth to their third child. He again recited the salawat but this time with much greater conviction. He started chewing the seaweed. Another miracle occurred. The algae tasted delicious! He laughed to himself. His two weakened companions were reluctant to consume the seaweed. They probably thought that he had lost his mind and wished only to quicken his death. On the third day, both friends had succumbed to death and Murdanis condition further deteriorated. The following day, he passed out and only regained consciousness when a group
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uhadi, another sherman from Tanjung Luar and the father of two sons spoke of his ordeal seven years ago when he and his two friends were thrashed by waves as they were caught in the middle of raging seas exposed to the eastern winds. They had to sail farther into the inner seas as it has become dicult to obtain sh in nearby waters. The boat capsized and all three shermen held on tightly to it. They had lost all hope. They were left
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Together with his children, Pak Jamaluddin prepared sh bait for the next shing trip. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
of shermen found him at the edge of the seashore of Nusa Penida Island. When he came to his senses, he realized that he was rescued after ve days aoat. The physician who treated Murdani at the local hospital said that it was indeed a miraculous survival. Such is the dismal condition of Tanjung Luars shing community for the past ten years. Its natural environment has undergone drastic changes. Fishermen from outside of the community have exploited the area with destructive shing methods such as by using dynamite, cyanide and mini trawlers unfriendly to the environment and hazardous for the sustainability of marine resources. Tanjung Luars shing community is also aware of the impact of Newmonts gold mining activities in Batu Hijau and how it has contributed signicantly to damaging the marine ecosytem, leading to a decline in the number of squid and various sh populations previously plentiful in surrounding waters.
As ordinary people, the shermen of Tanjung Luar have no inkling as to how to prepare data or facts comparable to the work of academic researchers or scientists who are paid hundreds of millions of rupiahs to prove that tailings are indeed non-toxic and will not cause environmental damage or diminish squid and sh stocks that serve as the primary livelihood of traditional shermen residing in proximity to the mining site. Even the most knowledgeable researcher however, will not be able to completely empathize with what these shermen are going through each day as they are fully cognizant of the fact that both their lives and livelihood have indeed been altered.
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Traditional Ships in Tanjung Luar Beach (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
ATAM, an institution ghting against environmental destruction by mining operations, stated in a press release on 6 April 2009 that PT Newmont Nusa Tenggaras waste disposal at Senutuk Sumbawa Bay of West Nusa Tenggara has incited protest from shing villages along the coast of Sumbawa to East Lombok as their earnings have plunged to dismal levels. Fish are hard to come by since thousands of tons of tailing wastes are dumped to the sea. On Sumbawa Island, from Sagena Beach, Labuhan Lalar, Benete, Rantung, Senutuk to Tolanang, shing communities have expressed their grievances over dwindling numbers of squids and tuna sh since Newmonts disposal of tailing wastes in nearby waters. On Lombok Island situated close to the tailing disposal site - the shermen of Tanjung Luar and Meringkik Island have also reported on a similar situation. Ironically, in another report it is mentioned that after dumping more than 400 tons of tailing wastes to the sea, PT NNT was instead awarded with the PROPER green environmental rating. In fact, at Rantung Beach, the location for the daily disposal of 120 thousand tons of waste to the sea, the populations of young sh have been continuously shrinking since the mining companys disposal of its tailings in local waters. Fishermen who normally look for young sh and would ordinarily bring in thousands to hundreds of thousands of ngerlings in a day have now left the profession. This is also experienced by shing communities in Senutuk Beach of Sumbawa who now must sail farther to Labuan
Lombok and even to Labuan Tano. A similar situation has also occurred in Meringkik Island, Labuan Luar of East Lombok where shermen are forced to navigate the seas for days around the coast of Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara to catch sh or squid. PROPER is an alternative policy instrument from the Ministry of the Environment aimed at encouraging corporations to show more concern over proper environmental management through the dissemination of information on their environmental performance and compliance to the public and stakeholders. The PROPER program has been developed since 1995. PROPER consists of ve color-coded ratings, beginning from black, red, green and to the highest level of gold. Companies that succeed in obtaining the gold rating are those that have managed to implement eective environmental management and reached impressive results. A green rating is awarded for eorts or activities related to environmental management that have succeeded in attaining results beyond the pre-determined requirements as governed in existing laws and regulations.
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t was the end of July, 2010 at Tanjung Luar, and as dusk approached, a row of multi-colored boats can be seen lining the circumference of the shores with the skies beginning to turn reddish. From the edge of the
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pier crowded with shermen, approximately 200 meters from the village, the modest and simple way of living of the shing community is clearly apparent. Taking a closer look into one of the shermens houses, Suhadi and his eldest son, Syahril Abdullah (16) who refuses to continue his education after completing junior high school this year, can be seen preparing the rinta shing tackle to catch tuna sh. He carefully attaches some 150 200 hooks on each strand of shing line. These hooks are spaced at an interval of one depa or roughly 50 centimeters from each other. If luck is on a shermans side, tuna sh will take in the baited hooks and the fortunate sherman will bring home 1 to 3 tubs of sh and auction them o to the sh market. The shing lures are not smaller bait sh or worms but only a few strings of brightly colored ne threads. According to Suhadi, the shing community of Tanjung Luar uses articial baits and
decoys which resemble the intended food of the targeted sh. Examples are the rinta for catching layah and tuna sh, and rapala also for luring tuna. Rapala which looks similar to the tuna sh is carved from jackfruit branches, and weight made from molten lead is inserted into the decoys belly and when the lead cools and stiens the rapala will then weigh one kilogram. The shape of the rapala closely resembles the tuna sh and is highly suitable for luring a 100kg tuna sh.
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uhadis son begins to roll up the rinta inch by inch after ensuring that all hooks are properly attached. Suhadi had earlier prepared two spare rinta. Using the rinta to catch tuna, layah and layang sh bears the risk of breakage or becoming completely entangled.
Catching coral shes. In the last several months, the catches in the area decline signicantly. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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A shing line may break o while the sherman waits for all baited hooks to be eaten and the mouths of the lured tuna are caught between the sharp hooks. When a much larger predator unexpectedly appears and devours the trapped tuna, its pointed teeth can easily sever the strand of shing line underneath it and even release all of the ensnared sh or swallowed by other predators. If one is fortunate, all of the baited hooks are taken in and the caught sh can be hauled into the boat. To produce a single shing line such as the rinta for catching layah sh, Suhadi must set aside Rp 100,000 to buy dozens of boxes of hooks and rolls of shing cords. To anticipate the possibility of damage to their shing gear due to breakage caused by predators, shermen must at all times carry with them two to four extra shing tackle. For Suhadi, two rinta is sucient for his journey out to sea later that evening. This means that he has already spent Rp 200,000 for his shing trip for that day. To increase his chances of a greater catch, Suhadi has also prepared shing gear for reeling in tuna sh at a much cheaper cost of roughly Rp 50,000. Syahril has nished preparing all of his shing gear for two sh species namely layah and tuna. There was not a hint of weariness even after four hours of concentration in preparing each sh hook in succession until he nally nished attaching all 200 baits. He then walked towards his father to ask for some money to buy 10 liters of fuel and Suhadi gave him Rp 70,000 to purchase the fuel and two packs of Bentoel cigarettes. Boat-owning shermen who account for 90 percent of households in Tanjung Luar must at least spent Rp 400,000 Rp 500,000 before being able to set sail for a shing trip. If the tuna sh fetch a good price, the local shermen can earn a decent prot. Tanjung Luars shermen can only make a protable catch when the price of tuna reaches
Rp 20,000 for six sh and will suer a loss when the price slumps to Rp 10,000 for every nine sh. One of the ways in which Suhadi and many other local shermen stretch their budget is to wrap hundreds of sh hooks with wax paper found in cigarette packs. This is to protect the hooks from rust after the rst use, making them longer lasting for up to seven times of use. This is also necessary considering the signicant amount of time spent by these shermen in preparing the sh lures and lines, the length of which can reach hundreds of meters.
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amaluddin, a local sherman who can no longer entirely depend on his capability to head out to sea is now contemplating on the idea of earning a living by trading used boats since he married his wife, Siti Endun, eleven years ago. The long distance that he now has to embark on in order to nd sh and correspondingly, to be exposed to potentially greater risk have led him to consider about starting a new line of business. With his wifes encouragement, the couple made the decision to leave Tanjung Luar in order to raise enough money for start-up capital. They would need around Rp 2 million to start a business. They eventually opted for Selong Balanak, a village in East Lombok where Siti Endun was born 26 years ago. In spite of the dicult times, they managed to settle in their new found home and strived for a year. Through hard work, Siti Endun managed to save Rp 2.5 million for their business capital. Jamaluddin bought a used boat for the price of Rp 2 million. With this newlyacquired asset, he returned to Tanjung Luar and began his business of trading and repairing shing boats. While renovating his used boat, Jamaluddin continues to head out to sea with
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another shermans boat through a protsharing scheme. For example, if Jamaluddin earns Rp 30,000, the boat owner will receive his share of Rp 10,000. From his shing income combined with Siti Enduns earnings selling sh at Tanjung Luars sh auction market, the couple managed to put food on the table for their small family of two children, Irwan Putra (in grade 5 primary school) and Hera Agustina (three years old). The majority of small-scale shermen in Tanjung Luar generally leads a harsh existence. For Siti Endun, the most trying episode that her family had ever experienced was in 2003 when they had nothing to eat as they had failed to catch any sh. When the sh catch is inadequate, shermens wives are forced to sell o their kitchen utensils such as cups and plates, and even their sarongs or anything of value. At the time, Jamaluddins family owned nothing of worth. Borrowing money was the only way out. Eleven years have gone by and Jamaluddins boat repair and trading business has become protable. This is complemented with his wifes adroitness in tending to the household and selling sh at the market each day. The family can now earn sucient money to at least cover their daily expenses of between Rp 100,000 to Rp 250,000 and to replenish kitchen utensils in the event that they might need to sell them o at the market, particularly when the east wind takes place in August to September. Not only will sh be scarce during this spell but normally no sherman will want to repair or buy shing boats. For Siti Endun, selling at the Tanjung Luar Fish Auction Market is part of her daily routine. She usually brings three to four tubs to the market. Before dawn, one by one the shermen will arrive back on shore, carrying with them heaps of tuna or white layah sh. The women will approach the boats and briey start dealing
before carrying a tub of sh on their heads walking towards the roadside to get on the local public transport en route to the market to sell the sh.
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s usual, the sh market that morning is already packed with crowds of people. The roadside leading to the marketplace is lined with shops or stalls displaying an assortment of wares such as clothes and electronic goods. Several cidomo (horse-drawn carriages) can been seen parked along the road waiting for passengers. In one shop, a man is preoccupied with repairing several kerosene lamps, while in a dierent shop a person is busy selling salt. Close to the market entrance was once the Bahtera Hidup Cooperative which has long been defunct. Many shermen now are left with no other option but to rely on moneylenders. Upon entering the marketplace, one cannot help but notice that the sh sellers and buyers are predominantly women. One of the women in the crowd is Siti Endun who earlier in the morning had bought two heaps of tuna sh caught by her younger brother, Ale. According to Siti Endun, sh sold at the market originate from Central Lombok or Selong Balanak, Batu Nampar, Awang, Labuan Lombok and Meringkik Island. Fishermen bring in the sh and sell them to women sellers at the market. Under certain situations, the shermen may request the help of these women to sell their catch of the day. The species of sh normally sold at such marketplace include sardine, tuna, white layang, layah, ruma-ruma, mackerel and cuttlesh which are now in short supply. The price of sh
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in each tub varies greatly. One tub of sardines can costs between Rp 40,000 and Rp 150,000, while the price of tuna may range from Rp 60,000 to Rp 250,000 for each tub. When sh market prices - often unfavorable to shermen are at a protable level, for each tub of sh sold, a sherman may gain Rp 15,000 Rp 250,000 in prot.
shermen who is still disappointed at the NGO activists. He mentioned a name fairly recognized as a shermens rights defender but who can easily be tamed by corporate vested interests. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that these local shermen also cannot rely on the village authorities. The village chief is rendered powerless against the close ties between the district government and the mining company. As the day advances, Murdani concludes the conversation with the following comment: As far as I am aware, Newmont is most wary of Tanjung Luar as the area is predominantly populated by shing households. Tanjung Luar has bore the direct brunt of tailing waste disposal. Once the impact worsens and spirals out of control, what then will become of Tanjung Luar? And for this, more heed should be given to the shing community of Tanjung Luar! Murdani spoke in a solemn tone. Jamaluddin and his wife along with several other shermen engaged in the discussion were listening attentively to Murdanis words. Murdani was silent for a moment. It was as if he was mustering the strength to express his nal remark. In a more controlled intonation he said, Hear the agonizing voice of the shermen, if the impact of Newmont operations has penetrated into Tanjung Luar, what good will any aid in the form of engines, boats or even houses be when our bodies are being ravaged by diseases!
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t Jamaluddins house, the animated discussion went on among the shermen. They were still left with the unanswered question about the dwindling number of sh populations in nearby waters. It was plain to them that tailing wastes were one of the main contributing factors to the environmental change. With regard to this, they expected that attention would also paid to their village. In four sub-districts located in the proximity of the mining site in Sumbawa, shing community development programs are consistently being funded by PT NNT sporadically and through a caritative approach focusing on shing communities directly aected by the companys gold mine excavations. Several NGO activists have previously paid a visit to the Tanjung Luar shing village. They urged that the shermen put up a ght against the company practice of dumping wastes into local waters. The shing community of Tanjung Luar is now keen to convey their aspirations to relevant parties. The NGO representatives whom local shermen described as people who can talk cleverly however, disappeared after they had engaged in negotiations with PT NNT. Our fate clearly depends on them as they are clever at talking, commented one of the
ooOoo
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Pak Jamaluddin and Ibu Siti Endun enjoy their happy family. They face their daily life with optimism and enthusiasm. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Ibu Sri Jayamo is collecting fodder for the goats she received as loan from LPUBTN. She collected gembilina leaves every afternoon using bamboo punting pole and sickle. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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After Teak, Corn Flourishes

By EM. Ali
bead of perspiration drops from the tip of her chin. Sri Gunarti, more popularly known as Sri Jayamo (39), reaches for the scarf draped over her shoulders to wipe her face. Noon at Penadaran is scorching hot. Even after communal work at Goa Maria all morning, she remains in high spirits. During this time she had hiked back and forth over a hill on four separate occasions to Goa Maria, lugging heavy bricks on her back. The distance between Goa Maria and the volleyball court located at the fringe of the village where the bricks are obtained is roughly two kilometers with a fairly sharp slope. Without a moment of rest, together with Darwati, she looks for cattle feed at a tiny adjacent hill to Goa Maria. Along the trail, Sri Jayamo looks upward at the gmelina trees spaced wide apart in between the corn eld that blankets the entire hill. Sri Jayamo grabs hold of the genter (bamboo pole) with a sickle tied to the end of it. Sri reaches for the gmelina leaves growing high aloft almost touching the skies. Her entire body is drenched with sweat. Nevertheless, a smile never leaves her face already reddish brown due to the blazing sun. If we are caught taking these gmelina leaves, we would surely be reprimanded by Perhutani (state-owned forest company), she says calmly.
of Perhutanis dryland. Tilling at ones own agricultural land is known as tegalan. Bantengan Hamlet in Penadaran lies administratively within Grobogan District in Central Java. This small hamlet is enclosed by Perhutanis forest area or state forests. This is the area where local residents are allowed to farm on dryland through the land cultivation rights status. Stretching across a karst hill, the Perhutani forest is where 4,769 people in Penadaran and nearby areas earn a livelihood from growing corn. Sri Jayamo is one of them. Farming is still a new occupation here particularly since the Perhutani forest was completely cleared, says 45-year old Jayamo, Sris husband. No work is available here. I go to the forest to steal wood, we call it mblandong, Sri adds with amusement. Almost all of Penadarans natives have stolen wood, both men and women. Everyone would enter the forest to take wood. When Dela was still an infant, I had to steal wood to buy milk, she says in a heavy Javanese accent. Dela is the couples daughter. Before 2001, cultivation on Penadarans dryland was non-existent. On the 902,200-hectare forest, teak trees(Tectona grandis L.f) grow densely. Not a single native would go to the forest except for those with access granted from Perhutani. Local residents of Penadaran are afraid to take wood from the forest. Should they
My babadan is over there, behind that hill, she goes on to say while pointing at a small hill covered by corn trees. Babadan is the term used by the people of Penadaran for the cultivation
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be caught taking teak wood, they can be thrown into prison and must pay a substantial ne. If a wood theft case is brought to the kemantren (local Perhutani oce), the oender is liable to a ne of Rp 2,000,000 to Rp 3,000,000, and if it reaches the Mranggen (a higher level Perhutani authority), the penalty can amount to Rp 10,000,000 or more, explains Sikun, a local resident who had once been caught by Perhutani for stealing wood. To maintain their livelihoods, a signicant number of the Penadaran populace has migrated to the city in search of work as construction workers. The majority of local youths on the other hand prefer to try their luck overseas, for example in Malaysia, Hongkong or Japan or by becoming crew members on a ship. When they return to their hometown, they bring with them considerable amounts of money which tempts other young adults to follow suit. Such good fortunes are a more promising lure than staying at Penadaran and its barren land. This is probably the reason why we will be greeted with Welcome to Penadaran as we enter the village border instead of its Indonesian version of Selamat Datang di Penadaran. It is a source of pride for natives who succeed in making a living abroad and coming home with loads of money.
individually. They organize themselves before entering the area to steal wood. Mblandong groups are then established, involving loggers, supervisors, the main boss who nances such activities, dealers and even an insider from Perhutani who partakes in this collaborative scheme to strip the forest bare. Almost every Penadaran inhabitant does it. A single group consists of several loggers of between 5 to 10 people. As they chop the trees down, one of them is responsible of keeping a close watch should people from Perhutani appear at the site. Teak wood is then brought down from the heart of the forest. Below, a truck is ready to transport the wood. Huge teak logs are hauled onto trucks, the smaller ones are lugged home by the women. This will add to their familys earnings, says Jayamo. Through mblandong, getting Rp 200,000 is easy. For one months work, you can build a ne wooden house, says Sikun a resident of Kedung Kerep Hamlet and the head of Sumber Makmur farmers group that receives assistance from LPUBTN, as he icks the tip of his little nger to demonstrate his point. But we can never manage to save any money. Once the money is in our hands, we will shop at the market, get drunk and gamble it away. Money gained for that day will also vanish on the same day. Jayamo recounts a tragic incident when he fell and hurt his spine after heaving teak logs. He suers from a pinched spinal nerve, says Sri. Jayamo only felt pain several years later. Initially he thought it was an ordinary ache, bought some medicine at the market and it was cured. But over time the pain became regular and Jayamo experienced spasms. Sri brought him to the doctor when the pain became excruciating. The doctor said that he was paralyzed. I was devastated. I sold o the house to seek all
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y the end of 1998, life in Penadaran began to show signs of picking up. Political shifts in Jakarta and the downfall of the Suharto regime brought about tremendous changes to Penadaran. The local people are now willing to take the risk of entering forest areas. Their forays into the forest are never done
manner of treatment but to no avail, Sri speaks faintly as she recalls the tragedy. There was nothing else to do. Since the end of 1998 to 2001, teak forests extending across 902,200 hectares of land were plundered by the local people. Only teak stumps are what remain of the forest. When the trees are gone, work opportunity also vanishes. Widespread unemployment hit Penadaran. The younger generation of Penadaran who initially engaged in mblandong, inevitably had to return to major cities, with the men working as construction laborers, and the women becoming factory workers or seeking employment in foreign countries. For parents and the older population, turning to thousands of hectares of barren land encircling the village was the only option. The villagers of Penadaran began to work on Perhutanis vast land with whatever capacity that they could muster. The extent of land that they can till on depends on their respective capability. If a villager is able to cultivate 10 hectares of land, he can freely do so. Using simple farming techniques with rudimentary tools, each farmer can till an average of 2 hectares of land. The option is simple; growing crops that can most easily be planted and thrive. Local farmers decided on corn plants (Zea mays L). Apart from trouble-free care, corn also has a short planting duration of approximately 3 months before it is ready for harvest. Chemical fertilizers such as urea and pesticide evenly coat the soil to ensure a successful harvest from which the local people rely on to survive. In addition to corn, babadan farmers must also tend to the gmelina trees cultivated by Perhutani in substitution of teak. The local forestry oce has launched an industrial crop planting program several years earlier following
the deforestation of teak trees in Penadaran. Gmelina trees which are used as raw material for the production of hardboard pulp were eventually the preferred choice. Gmelina trees are harvested after they reach the age of ve years old. Farmers are entitled to 15% - 20% share from harvested gmelina trees. Perhutanis gmelina cultivation program has posed dryland farmers with a dilemma. On the one hand, adult gmelina trees with their lush foliage prevent corn plants from growing to their fullest, thus reducing harvest yields. On the other hand, farmers tilling on Perhutani land bear the obligation to maintain these trees. It is not surprising to see in many sections of the land sparsely spaced gmelina trees which can total only a handful. Without Perhutanis knowledge, farmers axed or destroy the trees. It is an act that bears the risk of being caught by Perhutani but they are left with no other option in order to survive. Their simple farming technique has managed to set Penadarans economic wheels in motion, including that of Sri Jayamos household as she is now the sole breadwinner of the family.
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Kula tahu ndonga sewengi bleg (I prayed all night) crying, and imploring to God for Mas Emos (Sris nickname for her husband) recovery, Sri recalls her husbands condition with tears forming in her eyes. When Jayamo was at the height of his illness, Sri had to carry him to the bathroom. As their earthen-oored house is without a well and toilet, Sri has to use her neighbors bathroom. Fortunately, most of her neighbors are still
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relatives, thus she can have access to such bathing facilities. Witnessing Sris attentiveness and devotion in tending to her husband and in earning a livelihood for her husband and daughter, neighbors sympathize with her situation and are willing to help her out. In every prayer, I always plead for Mas Emos recovery, says Sri who visits the church every Saturday night to receive Holy Communion. Sri has never ceased to nurture hope. Sri is devoted to religion. From an early age, she has always actively participated in churchrelated activities. She is a member of the church choir in Penadaran. Her rst encounter with Jayamo was also at the church. Jayamo served as the choir coach for the Penadaran church congregation. Sri was oblivious to Jayamos furtive glances at her. The intensity of their choir practices had increased their chances of knowing each other. When Sri turned 17, Jayamo asked for her hand in marriage. Without further ado, Sri accepted the marriage proposal. They exchanged their marital vows in 1981. Before she was married to Jayamo, Sri worked as a domestic helper in Semarang. After she was married, as work was scarce in Penadaran, on several occasions Sri followed her husband to work at a construction site and was hired as a cook preparing meals for the workers. Apart from Semarang, she has also worked as a cook for a construction project in Yogyakarta. I have also been to Yogya, at a sand mining site in Bebeng, mentions Sri as she reminisces about her experience working away from her native village. Work as a construction laborer is not available every single day as it depends on the person who can recommend others to work on the site. If one does not proactively seek such
employment opportunity, work will be hard to come by. In early 1998, before the forest was plundered, the Jayamo family decided to return to Penadaran due to the uncertain political climate which brought many road and housing development projects to a halt. Each morning as she leaves for the babadan, sadness casts a shadow over her. The babadan that Sri works on is modest in size, a mere one hectare carved into four sections each covering an area of 2,500 m2. As the female head of the family, she does not have much energy left to work on a broader strip of land. When I have the money I will hire others to till the babadan. Otherwise, I will do it myself. Sometimes Mas Emos cousin helps out, Sri says desolately. As she plants corn all by herself, Sri feels despondent. It normally takes two people to grow corn; one person hollows out a hole while the other inserts the corn seed. If the work is done alone, sowing 2,500 m2 of land would need considerable time to complete. Planting the corn together would only take half a day. As her gaze lingers on other farmers leaving for the eld along with their family members, she becomes teary-eyed. Im afraid of being left widowed. Widows are of no worth here, she says pensively. The societal system in Penadaran relegates a widow to an unfavorable status. Widows are seen in an unattering light by society. When a woman is widowed, she is perceived to have failed in sustaining her marriage, inept in tending to the household, and she becomes the talk of the entire village. Becoming a widow is a living nightmare for the women of Penadaran. Sri hopes that she is not one of them. As such, she has spared no eort to nd a cure for
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Corn as a harvest of Ibu Jayamo, Rp 3,500 for a kilo of corn.
MDGs as My (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010) 117 Development Goals
her husband. She sold o their house bought from earnings gained from mblandong, still in ne condition constructed with the highest quality wood and an attractive wooden oor. Money from selling the house helps pay for her husbands treatment and the remaining Rp 7 million is enough to buy another house where the family now lives in. A modest 9 x 11 meter house with wooden panels for its walls, earthen oor and without a well. Clean water is drawn from a neighbors well through an installed pipe extending to a concrete bath tank at the rear end of the house. It is not easy to take on the role of the head of family with the obligation to provide for a child and semi-paralyzed husband in a barren village. Apart from manpower, capital for buying corn seeds, urea and pesticide is also a major problem for the people of Penadaran. This leads to another dilemma with regard to middlemen. On the one hand, the local people steer clear of the middlemen as they are a detriment to farmers, yet on the other hand, they are needed by local residents to keep the economic wheels in motion. There is no other option. It is unthinkable for the farmers to have anything to do with banks, as the majority of them are fearful of dealing with these institutions. Middlemen are the only solution. To make matters worse, the price of corn plunges during harvest time and middlemen buy the crop at a much lower rate from the market price. Instead of making a prot, farmers are pushed further into a corner. We owe the middlemen for the seeds, urea, pesticide and other goods. If the price of a sack of urea stands at Rp 50,000, the middlemens rate can reach a staggering Rp 110,000. We just need to estimate how many sacks are required for planting corn and the middlemen will supply them. When harvest approaches, the yield will
be deducted to the amount of the loan, and the remaining harvested crop is bought at a price set arbitrarily by the middlemen, explains Sri Jayamo as she describes the hardship confronting her and other farmers in Penadaran. Furthermore, Penadaran still adheres to a costly tradition. The mbecek custom refers to contributions made when a member of the community holds a ceremonial celebration, draining the peoples economy. Mbecek evolved into a pattern almost comparable to the system developed by the middlemen. Contributions can be in the form of money, rice, corn and even cigarettes. These oerings within the local social context are regarded as loan, and as such are recorded by the person holding the celebration. He will then have to do likewise to the next person planning for a celebration by returning the same or a higher amount of contribution made to him by the other person. Such celebrations are customarily held during bulan besar, a specic month set according to the Javanese calendar. In a single month, a person may have to contribute to the total amount of Rp 3 million. Mbecek has become commercialized by the people of Penadaran, even for less important occasions such as circumcisions and birthdays, occasions when a local resident may want to hold a grand celebration. Nek kula sak kiyate (I only do it according to my capacity). If you become too absorbed with mbecek, you will be penniless, says Sri on the phenomenon that has evolved for years in Penadaran.
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Try planting other crops, who knows they might fetch a higher price, Jayamo suggested to his wife. Although Jayamo can no longer be of any help, he always listens attentively to his wife on whatever information she shares upon returning from the babadan. Hearing Jayamos suggestion, Sri kept silent for while. Once corn plants on one of her babadans have been harvested, she did not hesitate to make the necessary changes. I decided to grow green beans. The seeds are indeed more expensive than corn. But corn plants need more than three months before they can be harvested whereas green beans only need two months, informed Sri as she spoke of her simple rationale. The local farmers of Penadaran never thought of green beans (Vigna radiata) as being a crop species that can thrive on dryland. Penadarans has an undulating land contour, a signicant portion of which comes in the form of karst rocks with soil thickness of merely 20 centimeters. Faced with such topography, the local population are unconvinced that other crops can ourish in the area except for corn and tree crops. Sri was unperturbed when other farmers ridiculed her for deciding to cultivate green beans which the local people saw as an outlandish idea. Kula di oyok-oyok, kacang ijo kok ditandur nang kene, ra bakal urip kuwi. Tapi nek kula mboten nyalahi uwong liya, mboten ngrugekake, terus niku sae damel kula, kulo terus mawon, kula mboten peduli omongan niku (I was ridiculed, why plant green beans for they will never survive. As long as I bring no harm to others and it is best for me, I will go on. I couldnt care less of what others say about me). When it was time for harvesting the green beans, Sri was in a joyous mood. The harvest was
plentiful and the price of green beans was high. Others began to pay attention to the cultivation of green beans as demonstrated by Sri. There were one or two people who also planted green beans after that but in modest quantity, said Sri. For the next planting season, Sri switched to another crop. She opted for cucumber. The harvest was also in abundance. I could harvest the cucumbers on the rst occasion. On the second occasion, it was still possible for me to harvest. For the third time however, others had by then known that I was planting cucumbers, all of which were later stolen, so there was nothing left to harvest, she said with humor. Sri had once even planted tobacco at her babadan. A wealthy man provided the capital to start her tobacco cultivation. Sri grew 7,000 to 8,000 tobacco plants and nurtured them well. When harvest season approached, the price of tobacco per kilogram reached Rp 3,000. Sri earned prodigious prots from her harvest. But on the second round of harvesting, torrential rains poured over Panjatan. They damaged the tobacco crop and only a negligible quantity could be harvested and the price plummeted to an all time low. Kulo bangkrut tenan pas nandur mbako. Kulo kapok (It was a substantial loss. Ive learned my lesson). I will never plant tobacco again. The problem is that when nobody buys it, you cannot consume them, says Sri with a laugh. She went to her babadan and yanked the tobacco plants out. The tobacco plants were left in heaps at the edge of the babadan. When they have dried up, she brings them home for use as re wood. Corn has become the mainstay of Penadarans economic engine. This crop species however cannot be grown all year long. Corn can only
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be planted during the wet or rainy season. During dry spells, the expanse of land stretched thousands of hectares across Penadaran turns reddish and devoid of any plant life. Tree stumps left from plundering the crops are the only ones visible in the area. Leave for the city to work as construction laborers. That is what the people of Penadaran normally do, says Sri Jayamo. Periods of dry weather are always trying times for the local residents of Penadaran. The only plant life on the babadan that can withstand the drought is what is left of banana trees grown during the rainy season. The yield however, is insignicant. One hand of bananas will only fetch Rp 10,000. Several Penadaran households who industriously plant bananas along the periphery of the babadan will sell them for extra income, but it would still be inadequate. The distressing situation in Penadaran ooding during the rainy season and parchedness during dry spells can lead to imminent food vulnerability, a cause of concern for the local people. They lead a life without any certainty of a better future. The situation is exacerbated by the unscrupulous behavior of the middlemen having power over the village economic system and a social construction that breeds consumptive behavior.
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ri walks along a foot trail as she descends from Goa Maria. A mound of gmelina leaves is strapped to her back. She pleasantly greets anyone she comes across. Upon entering the village, Sri walks through the side of her house and heads directly towards a
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goat pen at the back of the house. Four goats from the PE breed are housed in the pen. The animals are hefty and of the best quality. These goats are on loan from LPU, she explains while shoving the gmelina leaves onto the feeding trough. Its a fattening scheme. When the goats are sold o, the herder is entitled to 70% of the income, 30% for LPU and the group. LPUs share will be used to purchase medicine for goats should they fall ill. The local villagers of Penadaran are familiar with the name LPU, an institution under the auspices of the Semarang Archdiocese. LPUBTN (Institute for Assisting Farmers and Fishermen) is the institutions complete abbreviation but as the local people nd diculty in verbalizing the acronym, they have shortened it to make it easier to remember. LPUBTN was ocially established to Penadaran only 1.5 years ago. The institution views Penadarans dismal situation from a dierent angle. The prospect for dryland agriculture in the area can be explored even more optimally. A lengthy process however, is involved in order to fulll this potential. The entry point for the institution was initially through a ower arrangement program for Christmas. Floral centerpieces for Christmas are previously brought in from Semarang through traders. Once these products arrive in Penadaran, the price can reach Rp 60,000 to Rp 70,000. Penadaran has some 842 Roman Catholics. The demand for oral decorations every Christmas is fairly signicant, but at a considerable cost. Local women are brought together, teaching them to arrange owers. Buying such centerpieces would be expensive and the money saved can be allocated for buying other necessities.
Bu Sri Jayamo lives in a community with dierent religions, but with high tolerance. On a Sunday morning, together with other members of the community, she carried bricks for road building leading to a Catholic Worship place for Virgin Mary. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Sri is one of the participants of the ower arranging course. LPUBTN then established the Ngudi Rejo joint business group with a membership of 20 corn farmers. The farmers bleak economic condition and the power of the middlemen over the business are LPUBTNs primary concerns. It intensively provides assistance to local corn farmers. The institution also focuses on imparting eective corn cultivation techniques considering that Penadaran is the largest corn producer in Central Java, including with regard to the use of belek (chicken droppings) organic fertilizer in order to cutback on production costs. The discrepancy between the costs of urea and organic fertilizer is considerable. One hectare of corn eld uses up 1.5 quintals of urea for the rst fertilizing. The second fertilizing needs one quintal of urea. For a single planting period, a farmer would need a total of 2.5 quintals of urea. By using organic fertilizer, we can cut down on the use of urea to 1.5 quintals. We dare not completely replace urea. It must be done in stages, explains Parjo (42), head of the association of farmers groups and also employed as a primary school teacher. Switching from chemical fertilizer to organic manure is not an easy matter. Sri is one of the early farmers willing to take the risk of using organic fertilizer. Previously, nobody would want to use belek. Its unpleasant smell lingers. Some farmers would say, belek has a horrible smell, why would you use it as fertilizer. We could immediately cut down on urea use to as much as 50%, the rest we obtain from belek, says Jayamo. Jayamos health gradually improved after undergoing alternative treatment. He can now carry out certain farming chores, although he must restrain from exerting himself. Sri prohibits Jayamo from working
too hard because she knows all too well the hardship that the couple has to endure should Jayamo experience a relapse. Theres this kind-hearted friend from way back. Mas Jayamo has not seen him for quite some time. His name is Kirno and he lives at the neighboring village. He paid a visit and was concerned with Mas Jayamos health. He then brought Mas Jayamo for alternative treatment. We travelled back and forth to the treatment place. He paid for all the expenses, Sri recounts emotionally. Praise the Lord, may his good deeds be rewarded, she continues in a somber voice. The Jayamo family was pleased with the rst harvest which used belek as the fertilizer. Our harvest yield increased, says Sri, her eyes sparkling. From one hectare of land, we could yield 3.5 to 4.5 tons of corn in a single planting season when using urea. But after using organic manure the yield increased to 6 to 6.5 tons, Jayamo adds. What is being done by LPUBTN in Penadaran diers from the program developed by Trocaire in other areas. Similar programs are normally developed through a caritative approach, on programs that concentrate more on physical development. We are dierent. We develop programs that seek to attain food security for the local community and lower the risk of the land becoming arid, explains Isti, one of LPUBTNs sta, at her oce situated not far from Semarangs Blenduk Church which manages to preserve the architectural splendor of colonial times. Food security systems and disaster risk reduction is part of an integrated program that assimilates with the social setting by paying
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heed to Penadarans natural resource and human resource potentials. The presence of the group is extremely helpful for Penadarans corn farmers. Farmers can obtain urea, seedlings and pesticide from the group and no longer rely on the middlemen. It also costs much less than the price set by the middlemen. The market price for a sack of urea is Rp 50,000. Buying it from the group will cost you Rp 51,000; the Rp 1,000 dierence is for the group. But if somebody from outside the group purchases it, he will have to pay Rp 52,000. The Rp 1,000 to Rp 2,000 dierence is for the external party, explains Jayamo who has been conferred with the authority to distribute fertilizers to farmers groups. If farmers are short of capital for planting, they can borrow from the group. The groups funds are derived from LPUBTNs loans and monthly membership fees at Rp 3,000. In addition, additional capital for the group is accumulated from corn yields at every planting season. If from one planting season farmers produce 1 ton of corn, Rp 25,000 from the yield will be deducted for the group. If 4 tons of corn are harvested from a one-hectare plot of land, the farmer will receive a Rp 100,000 deduction. Currently, every farmer owes the group for an average of Rp 1,600,000. The group still has Rp 9,000,000 from its compulsory and voluntary savings, explains Parjo. LPUBTNs decision to introduce a borrowing scheme for group members is not without sound consideration. Apart from nancial constraints - the amount of funds borrowed to members are divided equally - the borrowing system was also launched in light of existing perceptions among members of the community that any kind of program is a form of endowment or grant aid that they need
not be held accountable for. This is the case for government programs introduced to the community. As a consequence, there is lack of transparency, ambiguous use of funds where no one can be held accountable, and eventually these programs are no longer implemented, only their reports available. The Ngudirejo joint business group serves as a farmers group that accommodates the needs and aspirations of corn planters in Penadaran. The presence of this group which receives assistance from LPUBTN systematically curbs the middlemens movement in the village. Members can borrow corn seedlings and belek from the group. The price is much lower than the rate set by the middlemen. Such loans can be returned during harvest time. They are interest-free. The price is based on the groups agreement, says Parjo. Crop cultivation rests on three main pillars that must stand erect. If one of these three pillars is absent, agriculture will be of the past. The three pillars are land, water and cultivation. Vast swathes of land under the ownership of Perhutani are available in Penadaran. Water poses a dierent problem that allows farmers to plant only during the rainy season. Cultivation comprises of tilling methods and the development of agricultural resources. LPUBTN focuses on this area by spearheading integrated programs. Despite various privileges in joining the group, not all corn farmers are willing to enlist as a member. From 1,534 farmers in Penadaran, only 52 are members of the farmers group creating a babadan area of 56 hectares. It is not easy to convince farmers to engage in natural or organic cultivation. The ease and practicality of using chemical fertilizer has caused resistance among farmers to switch to organic fertilizer.
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Pak Jayamo and Bu Sri Jayamo are harvesting corns. The price is RP 3,500 per kilogram. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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We are working on a babadan at the hill over there. The four of us women hoe under the sweltering heat. We are planting corn. Some would say, why women from town enter the forest and shovel the land. Dont you have any other job? But we carry on working on the babadan and apply the organic agricultural model. The villagers here must be shown rst on how its done. If its successful, they will emulate, if not we will be the laughing stock, says Kristin, a eld sta for LPUBTN, as we entered Penadaran. To develop an eective food security system, LPUBTN has established a collective granary. The women are given land at Perhutanis area reaching hectares. They grow nuts, spinach, chilli and kangkung vegetable. Income from harvest yields is stored at the womens treasury. The money is used when a meeting needs to be arranged. The men also have their own communal granary, explains Jayamo. Furthermore, it is suggested that we plant vegetables around our houses so that we need not have to buy them. It is practical to have them on our own yards. If we need celery and tomatoes, we can simply pick what we want. We never thought about this. Unfortunately, my celery stalks were ruined yesterday when a dog ran over them. Dogs here are all over the place, adds Sri with a smile. Another storage place is also established for keeping accompanying plants in the form of root crops or rhizomes such as kencur, ginger, turmeric and galangal normally considered as medicinal plants and can be used to meet the needs of a household and developed into modest business units among families. We are taught on how to run a home industry. Our earnings are not only dependent on farming. When the land has been relinquished
to Perhutani, we will not be able to farm any longer, Parjo says realistically as he speaks on the agricultural trend developing in Penadaran. Apart from working as a farmer, he is also a teacher by profession, and the current trend will not be an issue for him unlike other farmers who solely depend on crop cultivation as their only source of livelihood. To bolster the familys economy, women are trained to create products developed from their collective granary or other income generating undertakings that can be done at home. Some 12 women were trained at LPUBTNs oce. They were taught on how to bake cakes and produce snacks made from available agricultural produce in Penadaran. This program was introduced since early on as a response to the invasion of mass produced snacks harmful to the health of children in Penadaran. Sri Jayamo is one of the volunteers for the program aimed at boosting the familys economic welfare. One of the products made by members of the farmers group includes instant ginger drink. This gingerbased drink can be easily found in small shops throughout Penadaran. To provide an actual illustration to the group on how the food security system can reduce the risk of starvation in the event of a prolonged drought and for the system to also further augment household income, group members have conducted a comparative study in Semarang. They paid a visit to a farm owned by Pramono, an entrepreneur and farmer with immense concern for the plight of farmers. Its all inclusive. It even has a cattle farm. Cattle dung is used to produce biogas for cooking. Remaining cattle dung can be turned into crop fertilizer. Nothing is bought. Everything is already there through their own hard work. Should you need tomatoes, just pick some and
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you dont need to buy gas, describes Sri Jayamo, her eyes widening with excitement. Sri Jayamo can now understand on the importance of organic farming and the goaton-loan scheme. Goat droppings are indeed inadequate for manuring corn at the babadan demand for belek has always been obtained from Semarang but they can be used to fertilize vegetables grown in the vicinity of the house to meet the familys needs for healthy food. We need to emphasize here that the organic farming method we have developed is not meant for selling our produce at a higher market price. That is not our reason. The farmers should not be made to deal directly with the market; they need to be educated slowly. We want organic farming to become a lifestyle. Once it grows into a lifestyle, farmers will adopt an organic approach to agriculture, consume organic food and lead a healthy way of living, asserts Isti. The LPU program does not only cover aspects on agriculture and animal farming but also encompasses an educational agenda. A goat sponsorship program is available for children where goats are housed in a group pen. Each child tends to a goat. The animal will be cared for by the child participating in the program until the goat gives birth. After two successive kiddings, the sponsorship recipient will own the kid. The doe will then be handed over to next child who will also take part in the sponsorship program. Apart from goats, the children will also receive Rp 10,000 each month. The child will be held accountable for every expenditure from the money during the childrens group meeting. Each child is therefore expected to keep a record of all expenditures.
My father nds the grass, and I feed it, says Dela, Sri Jayamos daughter, about her sponsored goat, with amusement. Apart from oering aid to farmers groups in Penadaran, LPUBTN also introduces a healthy market mechanism through Pram who provides marketing assistance to the farmers. The market mechanism is intended to elevate the selling price of corn and strengthen farmers bargaining position. When the middlemens price is set at an unreasonably low price, they can contact Pram directly. On the contrary, when the middlemen settle on a high price, farmers can sell directly to these middlemen in Penadaran. Through this mechanism, the middlemen will have much less leeway. Introducing such mechanism certainly brings some degree of risk. Mr Pram had once bought corn at Rp 3,500 per kilogram, whereas the middlemens price was only Rp 2,700. A dierence of Rp 800 for each kilogram. You can spot a signicant dierence in terms of the quantity of corn (sold). Mr Pram was then intimidated by the traders here who bombarded him with text messages. He caved in and did not buy directly from the farmers. Farmers who do not owe the traders money, however, had no problem selling their corn to Mr Pram, recalls Sri. Many of the farmers group members have drawn benets from the presence of LPUBTN for almost 1.5 years in Penadaran. It is indeed a short span of time for fostering collaborative ties with the community. As an initial eort to sow the seeds of change amid the existing social fabric and economic order, LPUBTNs endeavor is indeed worthy of receiving greater attention. Parjo, the head of the association of farmers groups explains, The local community of Penadaran has reached signicant milestones. Before the arrival of LPU, Penadaran had no
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farmers group, and we have one now. Local residents have also increased their knowledge from being ignorant of proper farming techniques to having a good grasp of these issues. Improvements are also clearly evident with regard to the local economy. Agricultural yields have multiplied from four tons to six tons for every one hectare of babadan during each planting season. The 52 members under the farmers group in Penadaran have worked on a total of 56 hectares of babadan. From a rough estimate, 260 tons of corn are generated for every harvest, while there are two planting periods in a year, meaning that the group alone produces 520 tons. If each kilogram of corn fetches an average price of Rp 2,000, the money circulating annually within the farmers group amounts to Rp 104,000,000. This is only from their corn crops and excludes bananas and other agricultural products. It is a staggering gure for an impoverished and remote village known as Penadaran. LPUs presence in Penadaran has helped me tremendously. I now know the proper farming methods. I have gained the knowledge to make use of crops available nearby turning them into foodstus and snacks that increase the familys income. There is one more thing that I would like to do. Banana production in Penadaran has huge prospects, I would like to make banana chips and sell them, muses Sri as she enthusiastically shares her future plans. I also wish that my daughter Dela will have the opportunity to further her education. Let her parents be the only ones who could only nish their primary education, but she must be smarter than her parents. ooOoo
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A mother weighs her child in Posyandu in Oesapa Village, Kupang. (Photographer: Ape Djami, 2010)
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Hanging the Weighing Scale for the Future

By Wendy Bullan
Aku anak sehat, tubuhku kuat, Karena ibuku rajin dan cermat Semasa aku bayi, slalu diberi ASI, Makanan bergizi dan Imunisasi Berat badanku ditimbang slalu, Posyandu menunggu setiap waktu Bila aku diare, ibu slalu waspada Pertolongan Oralit slalu siap sedia.
song is associated with Posyandu (Pos Pelayanan Terpadu - Integrated Service Post). Posyandu has been very popular among the people in Indonesia, not only because of advertisements in electronic and print media but mainly because it has been successful in mobilizing peoples participation in its activities. Posyandu is regular activities for mother and child care in the villages. All villages in Indonesia are involved in Posyandu, with well structured organization. Now, it has been exactly 40 years since Posyandu was promulgated in Indonesia, since the idea of Posyandu was announced by Badan Koordinasi Keluarga Berencana Nasional (BKKBN - Coordinating Body for the National Family Planning) in 1970. At present, however, the sound of the story of Posyandu, like the other activities of the Family Planning Program, faded away. It has been defeated by other political agendas, such as, local elections and celebrity gossips in television. Posyandu in fact is the closest place that met the peoples needs and rights, particularly the needs and rights of the most vulnerable people in the communities (women and children). Posyandu is the place where the health of the mothers and babies are closely monitored by the experienced and dedicated professional midwives (and sometimes doctors). Posyandu is still a place that is identical to mothers and children under ve because they
I am a healthy child, my body is strong, Because my mother is diligent and conscientious When I was still a baby, I am always given breast milk, Nutritious food and Immunization My body is always weighed, Posyandu is waiting all the time If I have diarrhoea, my mother is always vigilant The help of Oralit is always available
n the past this was a very popular song; children and women were familiar with the song, together with its dance actions. The
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Besides having vitamins, the children also get additional food and drinks. Childrens health records will show whether the parents have given the children immunization and are aware of the childrens conditions since early childhood. (Photographer: Ape Djami, 2010)
are the ones who are obliged to visit Posyandu every month. Mothers (and to some extent parents) have put in their routine agenda every month to visit or to help Posyandu. Young women are also parts of the Posyandu activities both as health cadres or Posyandu cadres and as would-be mothers who have to know in advance anything related to pregnancy, child delivery, child care, nutrition, reproductive health and social roles of women in the communities.
mother and child care in optimal, regular and sustainable manner. Posyandu is organizationally under the responsibility of PKK (Family Welfare Education Services) that is mobilized by the wives of the civil servants and women at community level. In its operation Posyandu also carries the slogan of PKK, namely: women as the prime mover of development from below, to help the government create a prosperous family. This strengthens the perception that Posyandu is a special place for women (read: mother)1.
Women and Posyandu

The presence of Posyandu since its establishment has been integrated with womens activities in the communities, where women also can share information about their daily life problems, besides obtaining health services, and family planning services. It was expected that Posyandu could promote participation of people, particularly women, in the communities to promote health,
This was stipulated in the Instruction of the Minister of Home Aairs Number 9/1990 concerning the Improvement of the quality of the Formation of Posyandu at the village level: Overall Responsible: General Head of LKMD (Chief of Village/Lurah), Responsible for operational: Head I of LKMD (Public Personality), Head of Implementation: Head II LKMD/Head of Section 10 LKMD (Head of the Moving Team of PKK), Secretary: Head of Section 7 of LKMD, Implementers:
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One of the cadres giving vaccines to children under ve. (Photographer: Ape Djami, 2010)
Almost all cadres of Posyandu are women, both young women and married women. The cadres have been trained in several skills such as: weighing babies and making records in KMS (Kartu Menuju Sehat Baby Health Records), recording the development of pregnancy, providing advices to mothers, and early child care and development. In 1990s the cadres were also trained in economic management to be active in poverty eradication activities at community level. So Posyandu then grows as the centre for community development with women and child health perspective. Since Posyandu is closely related to women and most of the cadres are women, Posyandu is then associated with womens activities. People would feel odd if there are men joining
in Posyandu activities. In certain villages, however, men and women together participate in Posyandu activities, such as bringing children to the Posyandu regularly and monitoring the development of the children.
***
group of women gathered in Oesapa village, West Timor. They look serious talking about a topic, but still in relaxed atmosphere. They are not gossiping like what most people would say if they see women gather together. They are talking about the initiative to re-establish Posyandu in their village. Men are not present in the gathering because what they are discussing is Posyandu. Hartini Anin (56), the lines of wrinkles on her face do not diminish her spirit to remain a cadre
Cadre of PKK with the assistance of the Ocial of Family Planning Board and Local Health Oce.
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that she has assumed since 1990. It was in that year that the Posyandu in Oesapa Village was established, namely on 12 March 1990. With the help of PKK and Puskesmas (Public Health Centre), the initiative to establish Posyandu was realized. Permata Bunda is the name that was given to the rst Posyandu in Oesapa Village. The women in Oesapa participatively formulated the main purpose of the Posyandu, namely to make the care service closer to pregnant women and the children under ve. Oesapa Village, Kelapa Lima Sub-district, is a Village with the biggest population in the City of Kupang2. The composition of the people is quite heterogeneous since the two big Universities in the province of NTT are located in this area. In every corner, boarding houses starting from the expensive ones to the cheapest ones with poor sanitation can be seen. This village is also located near the beach that never runs out of supply of shes; Oesapa supplies sh to the City of Kupang and several areas in the District of Kupang and other districts such as TTS (Timor Tengah Selatan), and even TTU (Timor Tengah Utara). We can meet a group of Bugis-Makassar people in the vicinity of Oesapa Beach. Most of them are shermen, sh-workers, and shing boat owners. This heterogeneous character of Oesapa has a dark history when an incident related to ethnic and religious conict (SARA) occurred in 1998 and left a deep wound to the people. As time goes by, most of the people realized that they have lost too much. And the fear that spread everywhere made them feel that they are being tormented; it doesnt matter whether they
are the majority group, minority, natives or immigrants. Students, employees, educators, workers, shermen, and many other can be seen in Oesapa. The numbers of people coming in to the place increase every year, while the space is limited. Agriculture is no longer productive for the local natives. Oesapa became a choice for people coming from outside because of its strategic location, such as the centre of education and the dynamic economic activities. In line with the increase of the number of population, the numbers of women and children under ve also increase. Until the end of July 2010, Posyandu3 has recorded 891 children under ve. This is not exact number; there are still more children under ve but they do not go to Posyandu regularly every month. Initially many people agreed to establish a Posyandu in Oesapa Village, but when asked to become a cadre of Posyandu, many also refused, Hartini Anin explained. The woman, who people know her as Mama Anin, is the Head of Working Group IV of PKK and a cadre of Posyandu who is responsible for the implementation of Posyandu4. It is quite dicult to persuade people to become a cadre because I have to go from one house to another to explain. Eventually, some people also agreed to become a cadre. said Mama Anin remembering. When we rst
Based on the data from the registration book of the Posyandu in Oesapa Village that was summarized by the Head of Working Group IV and will be reported to Puskesmas. The ten main programs of PKK are embodied in four working groups. In particular, Working Group IV is responsible for the implementation of Posyandu.
4 2 According to the website Kota Kupang, the total population is 16,113 people in 2007.
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established Posyandu, there was only one cadre. Slowly there are more women interested, and now we have ve cadres in one Posyandu. Of course it is not enough considering the numbers of mothers and children under ve they have to serve. Currently, the Posyandu in Oesapa has 10 Posts. In 2000, the names of these Posyandu were changed to Posyandu Bougenvil 1 to Bougenvil 10. Despite so many challenges, these 10 Posyandu have been in operation for twenty years. The cadres of these Posyandu are sincerely serving the women and children, as volunteers. Will these Posyandu remain to be a special place for women after its twenty years of existence? Im happy to be a cadre because I can meet a lot of people and share stories. I like to mingle with many people. Mrs. Hartini Anin explained when asked why she agreed to become a cadre. By becoming a cadre, perhaps I can share my love to other people in action, she added in an accent of mixture of Javanese and Timorese. This is understandable because this mother of two children came from Malang, East Java, and has been living in Kupang for quite long time since she got married. Becoming a cadre is not easy. It requires commitment, consistency and certain kind of spirit to work as a volunteer. Being a cadre is not without risks; they have to divide their time as cadres and time for their own family, and have to show some exemplary attitudes and actions to attract mothers to come to Posyandu. They should become extraordinary people in the community. I am a Senior High School teacher and a housewife as well. Choosing to become a cadre should have the ability to divide time. For me, by becoming a cadre is to be committed to do
something valuable for other people, stated Frederika Ogga-Djawa (46), a Posyandu cadre in Bougenvil three. My experience as a mother led me to become a cadre, said Mrs. Rovina Djangu (49), a cadre from another Posyandu. I am quite confused as to why I agreed to become a cadre of Posyandu. We dont receive salary and sometimes I have to sacrice my time to have fun with my fellow young women, but I enjoy it, said Rumiyati (29). Being young and single did not stop this woman from becoming a Posyandu cadre. Her decision to become a cadre was only to ensure that she can use her capacities and time in proper ways and for right purposes. The willingness to help other people, perhaps, was the reason why I agreed to become a cadre. I feel happy when I meet mothers and children under ve and we mutually respect each other, added Rumiyati smiling. The roles of the cadres are instrumental in Posyandu. Though they receive funds for transportation costs, the value of the money is always less than they spend. The nancial assistance provided by the Government of the City of Kupang from the Local Budget for every Posyandu per year is only Rp. 1.500.000. The amount spent for the transportation of ve cadres is Rp. 1.000.000, Rp. 100.000 for administration, and the remaining Rp. 400.000 is for providing additional food for one year. Often mothers collect their own materials for nutrition and additional food for the children. In several Posyandu, the cadres should be creative to urge the parents to go to Posyandu. To attract mothers several Posyandu establish a Child Saving Account. This Saving Account is kept in Posyandu until the child reaches ve
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years old when they are allowed to take the savings. This saving can be used for school expenses when the child starts to go to school. At the minimum, the amount of the saving is Rp. 5.000/month, depending on the ability of the parents. The expectation is that, this saving can bind the parent to consistently go to Posyandu to monitor the health of their children. The initiative of other Posyandu is to make an arisan (saving group). Aside from using it to encourage parents to actively go to Posyandu; it is also used as a venue to discuss matters related to Posyandu, such as, the development of children, reproductive health, nutrition and health in general. We feel that becoming a cadre makes us more creative, explained a cadre convincingly. Challenges are always there and these challenges encourage us to think of a way out, added Hartini Anin. For example, we are confused right now because KMS is very limited. Hartini kept quiet for a while, we asked from Puskesmas but there is no response. They said that the agency is no longer producing it and nobody knows why. As such, we just photocopied it. Many of the mothers complained but we dont have a choice, right? added Hartini confused. ***
his mother left him after placing him inside the cloth to weigh him. He weighs 7.5 kilogram! shouted a female cadre shouting after weighing the child, reporting to her cadre partner who is busy taking notes. Marselina Nenohai (32), the mother with two children, is regularly bringing her children to Posyandu. She said, Since I had my rst baby, I always bring my children to Posyandu. That was in 2002. Do you want immunization? asked a cadre to Marselina after weighing her baby. Yes, I want an immunization for measles, replied Marselina convincingly. Oh if you want immunization for measles, you have to go to Puskesmas because once the medicine for measles is opened, it should be used straightaway. They only want to give it in Puskesmas to avoid waste of vaccines, the cadre explained.
The other women took their turns in having their baby weigh. After weighing their baby, they would give their KMS (Kartu Menuju Sehat Health Record Card) so that the cadre could write down the weight of the baby for monitoring. In another room, the babies are crying because they were given an injection by a midwife. Your baby will have a fever later on as a reaction of this immunization, said the midwife while handing a medicine to reduce fever. This should be taken 3 X to reduce the fever, the midwife explained. Thinking of Posyandu could not be separated from the term Lima Meja (Five Tables), namely;
A
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woman came carrying a child in one hand while the other hand holds another child. These three people are walking towards a house that is already full of women and their babies. From a distance, someone can see an iron weighing scale hanging on the ceiling of the house and a white cloth is tied to a sharp iron hook. A crying baby was inside the hanging cloth. The baby looked frightened; maybe he thought that
registration, weighing, lling-up of KMS, individual counselling based on KMS, providing Family Planning service, Immunization, and the provision of high dosage of vitamin A. At present these ve tables are not complete. They are only limited to the weighing of the baby, the llingup of KMS, the giving of additional food, and in February and August vitamin A is provided. The support from the government is decreasing, but the spirit of the women never declines. To ll the gaps of the service table, they could share with the mothers based on the knowledge they have and the experiences shared from other mother. The activities in Posyandu are routinely conducted every month, such as, the weighing of babies, and the immunization. Counselling is no longer available. The visits from the health personnels from Puskesmas and PKK cadres are very rare. The medical sta from Puskesmas
always escape saying that they do not have enough personnel and their function is just to deliver health service and not to motivate the people.
***
laps and praises with cheers coming out from women if they see a father bringing his children to Posyandu. It is always interesting for the women to ensure that man should be also encouraged to participate in Posyandu. That afternoon, a man brought his child to Posyandu. This is not the rst time for him to go to Posyandu. He and his wife bring their children to Posyandu alternately.
Mothers who come to Posyandu were briefed to line up and watch their children. (Photographer: Ape Djami, 2010)
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Sometime they go together with their two children, one of the cadres in the Posyandu who usually accommodate this pair commented proudly. If only all fathers are like Mr. Zaka, the mothers wont have to worry too much about dividing their time between their household tasks and bringing their children to Posyandu, Maria Mansur (38), one of the cadres of Posyandu Bougenvil 3 said boldly. I am certain that every month, there wont be any child with an empty KMS, she added to explain her statement expecting that all children have the opportunity to get services in Posyandu. It does not seem odd to Zakarias (30), more commonly called Zaka, if he should bring his children to Posyandu. His work as a service assistant in one of the churches in the community does not make him forget to bring his children to Posyandu. What I am doing is the realization of the promise I made when I get married. These are our children, not my children or my wifes children so we have to take care of them together, said this man who is always smiling as if he is enjoying his life without burden. This Great Man could not only be found in Bougenvil Three. Wearing a green batik shirt, a man brought his child to Posyandu Bougenvil One. Without saying a word, just a thin smile, he immediately placed his child on the weighing scale. He weighs eight kilogram, said a cadre. It seems like the weight of the baby is in accordance with the babys age which is only ten months. Without a comment, the cadre
wrote on the KMS of the baby, showing that there is no problem with this child. After this, the man went home immediately, still with smile that does not seem to fade. He is a teacher but he can still nd time to bring his child to Posyandu, said Rumiyati, the Head cadre of Posyandu Bougenvil One. Not far from Posyandu Bougenvil One, every 16th of the month, the house of Mrs. Getreda Natun is always crowded. Yes, that is the schedule of Posyandu Bougenvil Seven. Getreda Natun is the head of the cadres in Posyandu Bougenvil Seven. Her house was chosen for the place of Posyandu after moving from one place to another for several times. Posyandu is almost nished by 10:00 am when a woman and her husband carrying their baby came. When they were 200 meters from the Posyandu, the husband stopped walking and gave the child that he was carrying to her wife. After this, he sat under a shady tree while looking at his wife and child who is walking towards the Posyandu. Why didnt you ask your husband to join us? You must be happy to have a husband who is willing to accompany you to Posyandu asked a cadre to this woman. He is shy because all of the people here in Posyandu are women, replied the women with a little shy on her face. Although that man is only looking from a distance, there is always hope among the cadres that one day the man comes closer and closer, and nally decides to take part in Posyandu activities. Posyandu actually encourages parents, and men and women, to adopt the perception that taking care of children and educating
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children are shared obligations of both men and women, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. ***
used; it is only used to record the development of the children in the control card on monthly basis. Currently, Puskesmas is already using the standard of WHO. So the recapitulation should be re-calculated. If we use the standard lines in the KMS, then the number of the bad nutrition would be bigger compared with the standard of WHO, explained Mrs. Hartini Anin who goes around to visit these ten Posyandu every month to recapitulate all records. Posyandu as the service centre closest to the people is accessible to know the development of the children in the communities. All of the data from Posyandu will be used by Puskesmas to report to the Health Agency. Apparently, we as cadres are only needed if somebody wants to get the data on bad nutrition. After this, they will just ignore us, said Mrs. Frederika Ogga-Djawa who works as a cadre for more or less eight years. While remembering, he added, if there is an unexpected visit from a certain government agency or other agency, they will certainly call us, he kept quiet while wrinkling her forehead. Once there was a visit from the Vice-Mayor and his aides. Suddenly, I received a phone call from the doctor saying that I should get ready soon because Mr. Vice Mayor will visit our area. While smiling, she continued: At the time, I brought Mr. Vice Mayor to an area where car cannot enter. Walking on foot was also dicult. I did it so that Mr. Vice Mayor would know the condition of our area. According to the cadre, Posyandu became stagnant because of several factors, among others: the cadres are not active and they lack of
little girl who is more or less 11 years old went to Posyandu. She is carrying her brother and put him down later on when she felt that she could no longer bear to carry her brother. The name of this girl is Diana. Mama is cooking so I brought my brother to Posyandu. Diana explained when a cadre asked her, while handing the KMS of her brother to the cadre. Did you come to Posyandu last month? For a moment the cadre stopped writing in the KMS to ask this question to Diana. After this, the cadre continued her question with a smile on her lips, Why is his weight decreasing? While shaking her head with a confused look, Diana answered, I dont know, mama was the one who brought him. After weighing of his brother, Diana went home with several messages for her mother from the cadre. The cadres are busy making records not only for Dianas brother, but also for other several babies. The records are piled up to thousands of cards. From KMS the records are copied to the registration book that would be reported to the Head of Working Group IV of PKK and everything would be recapitulated. The result of the recapitulation from Posyandu will be recalculated according to the standard of WHO, to calculate the level of good, average, and bad nutrition. Meanwhile, the standard KMS is not
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spirit. The government introduced new projects that destroy voluntary spirit of the people and weaken the initiatives of the people. There is new assistance from the government but without people empowerment. We are afraid that Posyandu slowly becomes project for the government ocials and for the local people. Slowly there is no more spirit for helping each other and there is no more sense of community in this area explained Frederika. The ownership of Posyandu is not clear and this is also a big problem. Often, they say that the people are the owner of Posyandu but most people ignore it. Some people see Posyandu as a project. Meanwhile, on the hand Puskesmas, because it feels that Posyandu is owned by the people, considers the development of Posyandu as not their business. Puskesmas is only responsible for the immunization. The senior cadres, however, argue that whatever the challenges Posyandu should be sustained. Hanging the weighing scale every month and waiting for the mothers and children under ve should be conducted continuously. We dont care if men, fathers, and brothers participate or not, writing the development of the children in the KMS should be conducted continuously. They dont have any idea about the target of the MDGs. What is certain is that their service is not only until 2015. They never read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They never heard the speech of the President on the target of the
state for health. They never knew that most of the state budget is used for personnel spending of state ocials. What is certain is that, they will continue to hang the weighing device to weigh the children who become the owner of the future of the country. Therefore the cadres argue that improving the health of mothers and children by serving in Posyandu should be consistently done. Is it true that guarding the future is only the responsibility of women? Women arrange and make sure that food is available for the family. When it is dicult to nd water, it is the responsibility of women to nd water. Women also become the cadres of Posyandu who hang the weighing device every month to measure the development of the children. They hang their expectations high as they hang the weighing device high on the ceiling.
oOo
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A picture of unhealthy environment around Bandarharjo Public Health Center (Puskesmas) because sea water is ooding on road surface. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
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Women Resisting the Tidal Water

By EM. Ali isriah, 36 years old, got o from the becak (pedicab) slightly standing on tip toes to avoid dirty sea tidal water that is almost knee high in front of Puskesmas Bandarharjo (Bandarharjo Public Health Centre). She is going to have a pregnancy check-up. Misriah is of 8 months pregnancy. This is her third pregnancy. Her two children are now 6 years old and 2 years old respectively. For her previous two pregnancies, her medical check-ups were also done in this Puskesmas. Puskesmas Bandarharjo is the nearest health facility and it is aordable for the economy of Misriahs family who depends on the income of her husband as a labour in a small factory. Administratively, Bandarharjo Village is included in the sub-district of North Semarang, Semarang Municipality. This Village is located at the border with Tanjung Mas Sub-district which is the main seaport of Central Java Province. In the colonial period, Bandarharjo was the headquarter of the colonial administration in the region and now it is called as the old City of Semarang. As the headquarter of administration with Tanjung Mas Port as the entrance, Semarang has been a busy city. There was a fortress built around Bandarharjo that was called Vijfhoek Fortress. The fortress was used as the headquarter of the colonial armed forces and residence for the Dutch people. The initial design of the fortress a pentagon was to replicate the architecture of Amsterdam, while Semarang river was designed to become the canals. Therefore the old city of
Semarang is well-known as Little Netherlands. In 1824 the gate and the surveillance tower of the fortress were destroyed. After independence Indonesian government took over the buildings of the Dutch trading companies and the residential buildings. As time passes by Bandarharjo was then left unmanaged, the oce buildings that were busy are now unattended, and the canals that were constructed to manage the overow of tidal water are no longer taken care of. This condition is worsened by the increase of sea tides, the narrowing of canals and most likely by the coastal reclamation by PT Indo Perkasa Usahatama (IPU) to expand industrial complex. Bandarharjo then becomes a dead city that every year is ooded by water from the river and tidal water from the sea. Misriah is a bit lucky because her rented house has been made higher so the ood water doesnt go inside the house. But this is not the case for the pavements outside her house. The tidal water ows over the entire pavements. This poor condition brings various kinds of diseases in the community including Misriahs family, such as coughing, skin diseases and dengue fever. If my feet touch the sea tidal water, my feet cannot resist. Once I touch the tidal water, Ill suer from itchiness for few days together with fever, said Misriah about her regular situation in the area.
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This Public Health Center (Puskesmas) still uses a traditional maternal check-up process and equipments, but Ibu Misriah trusts it and she is satised with Bandarharjo Public Health Center service with its facilities constraints. (Photographer: Idealita Ismanto, 2010)
Health is a never-ending problem for the people living in Bandarharjo whose economic conditions are categorized as poor, with low and unstable income. This is really experienced by Misriah, especially now when she is pregnant. Extra attention is needed for her health and the health of the baby in her womb. Puskesmas is the only place where she can get a check-up to monitor the health of the baby in her womb. Puskesmas is the only and the best place to go for check-ups for the poor as those living in Bandarharjo. I go to Puskesmas once a month to examine the condition of my pregnancy, said Misriah who is very aware of the importance of having her pregnancy examined regularly. Every month, Misriah should ride on a becak from her rented house, where her family has been staying for 7 years, at Jalan Kakap 2, Kuningan, Bandarharjo. Her rented house is located less than two kilometres from the Puskesmas. This is actually relatively near, and actually she can walk. But since the road is always submerged under the dirty tidal water, it is risky for her to walk. In Puskesmas, Misriah obtains health service for free, except if she wants to have a blood test at the laboratory where she has to pay Rp. 8.000 to Rp. 10.000 (USD 0.75 cents to USD 1.1). This amount is still aordable for Misriah.
According to Misriah, if there is no Puskesmas nearby, they cannot aord for health expenses. Therefore she really has to take care of the health of the family and of her own. She also has to look after the hygiene of her house and take part in looking after the environmental sanitation in her neighbourhood. I clean the house and the environment regularly, said Misriah. Besides that I eat nutritious food and take enough rest. These are just simple steps to secure her health condition. But her determined eorts to protect her health and the health of her baby are something that should be appreciated. The same condition also happens to Dian Lestari, a housewife who lives in Bager Baru neighbourhood which is still located in Bandarharjo Village. Once a month, she goes to Puskesmas to have her pregnancy examined. This is Dians second pregnancy. She is just one month pregnant. Her rst child is already 3 years old. Aside from going to Puskesmas routinely to have her pregnancy examined, Dian also has to take care of the health and sanitation in her house everyday. Exercise and cleaning! We have to be smart in taking care of ourselves; rooms in the house have to be always clean. There are lots of mosquitoes in the room because of the tidal water ood. The tidal water ood has been here
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Ibu Misriah is checking her blood pressure because she had a high-blood-pressure. According to the doctor, she have to manage her diet to be more healthy and do exercise regularly.
Ibu Misriah has her blood pressure checked, whether she had a low-blood-pressure, normal, or high-blood-pressure.
A picture of unhealthy environment around Bandarharjo Public Health Center (Puskesmas) because sea water is ooding on road surface, but people around there have a high awareness and still trying to keep their environment clean.
for long time. We heard that the government wants to build a good road to solve the tidal water problem, said the woman who has been living in a house surrounded by dirty tidal water for ve years. For the people of Bandaharjo, waiting for the Governments action to take care of the tidal water ood is like expecting rainbow in dry season. The local people then took their own initiatives. The people living in the tidal areas collected some money from each household and started working collectively. The money we collected is used for buying construction materials to elevate the roads. The government only built the main roads outside of the village and not the roads in the village. The government should also build roads in the villages, because we are also citizens who need support from the government as we support them during election and we also pay tax, said Dian. The oor of Dians house is always submerged under the tidal water during high tides and when it is raining. Various eorts have been conducted by the people in Bandarharjo to protect the environmental sanitation. Besides protecting the sanitation of their respective houses, the people also conduct voluntary works in elevating the roads in the village to avoid the tidal water oods. Although the village is densely populated and ood and poor health become endemic problem, the government so far has not considered it as serious problem. For
years the populated area has been aected by the tidal waters, but still it is not considered as problem by the local authorities. It was only in 2000 that the Government of Semarang Municipality started to look at the areas submerged by the tidal water. In 2001 the Municipality Government constructed 49 water gates in a number of drainage channels leading to the river However, all these eorts are no longer eective because although water gates were installed, even two times higher, the tidal water could not be obstructed1. It was indicated that the inappropriate installation of the water gates even worsened the situation. The tidal water ows in this part of the Semarang Municipality is getting worse. Again, the local communities become victims. Although the people often become the victims of the wrong solutions by the Government in serving the interest of its people, the people still always have the initiatives and creativity to nd their own solutions. The solution they choose is though not always easy. Nonetheless they are trying and they keep on trying. They do not know the word failure because for them, life is a battle of its own. For protecting their families and environment, they never surrender to the problems. oOo
1 http://www.suaramerdeka.com/harian/0406/24/ kot06.htm, downloaded on 30 August 2010, 1.30 West Indonesia Time.
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About the Authors

Anwar Jimpe Rahman was born in Balikpapan on 5th of November 1975. He is an actuator one of Ininnawa Community in Makassar. He has been trusted to manage communitys publishing house in recent years by publishing many Makassar history, politic, and culture books. He engages in doing research in many issues for several times, such as alternative energy, food security, and education. He also produces many writings for local and national newspaper. EM Ali was born in Malang, East Java. He ever did a research in education and public health, and spent a long time enough doing community assistance especially in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta. Now, with his friends from Tandabaca Community, he is active accompanying senior high school teenagers to make video as an advocacy media in several cities like Yogyakarta, Solo, and Magelang. Furthermore, he is also involved in literature and has produced two novels, which are Peta yang Retak and Kaimana. Ishak Salim, right after he nished his study at Institute of Social Studies (ISS) Den Haag-Netherland in 2007, he is directly engaged in Makassar traditional market traders research and advocacy. Together with his friends, he established an institute called Active Society Institute (AcSI). He is often involved in doing research about development and economy politic issue. Now, he is trusted as a presidium chief of Payo Payo People School and still often asked to make research design and delivering workshops material. Wendy Bullan was born in Kupang East Nusa Tenggara in 22nd of January 1985. She is a volunteer in Cis Timor since 2008 until now. She is active involved in social activities and Non-Governmental Organization since she was in university. She ever joined with World Christian Frontiers and spreading peace for children in conict areas, such as Timor Leste. She also engaged in doing research about Disaster Risk Reduction, Food Security, Children education, and Gender. Now she is still active as a volunteer in Cis Timor to accompany cadre friends and Posyandu visitor, as a place to build awareness of gender equality.
About the Editor

Puthut EA was born in Rembang on 28th of March 1977. He has graduated from Philosophy Faculty at Gajah Mada University for his formal education. So far, he has written 16 books about many themes. He is also involved in doing many researches in certain areas like education, health, culture, personal history, and oral history. Beside writing and doing research, now he is trusted to be a media consultant in some non-prot organizations.
About the Photographer

Idealita Ismanto was born in Yogyakarta on 6th of July 1985. She has graduated from Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) Yogyakarta for her formal education majoring in photography. She is active involved Non-Governmental Organization activities since she was in senior high school. She ever taught about Kamera Lubang Jarum (Pin Hole Camera) for elementary students in Labuapi-Lombok, taught basic of photography for mothers as tsunami victims together with UNIFEM Aceh, and became a teacher of basic photography for child victims of Yogya earthquake with PLAN International Organization. She is being a photographer since 2003 until now. She has made photography exhibition in Yogyakarta, Jakarta, and ethnography museum in Russia. She enjoys with social activities and her photo often used for poster in INFID Jakarta and Foundation of Children Right Protection (YPHA). Now she is preparing herself to make a solo exhibition with INFID Jakarta.
Translators
Luisa Bahagijo, Leni Betinni Achnas, Dian Utami Putri, Octavia Pramita Purwaningtyas

MDGs As My Development Goals

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MDGs as My Development Goals