Rice -- The measure of all things in Indonesia<\/p>\n
By Andreas Baenziger<\/p>\n
JAKARTA: Do they sometimes have chicken with the rice? All
\nRita can do is smile. Yes, she says, the children ask every day
\nwhat has happened to the chicken or tofu. It is hard to make them
\nunderstand that things are not like they used to be. Only the
\nbaby gets milk, and then only once a day. All they have money for
\nis rice, rice and yet more rice.<\/p>\n
Rita teaches English at a technical college. Until a year ago
\nher family was part of the up-and-coming Indonesian middle class.
\nThe spacious house in the sultanate town of Yogyakarta bears
\nwitness to that, as does the car standing outside the door.<\/p>\n
Not that it is used much nowadays, apart from when Rita
\ntravels across country to buy something cheaper in one place or
\nsell something dearer in another, so as to boost the family
\nincome.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, you can no longer live on a public employee's
\nsalary. Javanese people do not like admitting something like that
\nin front of a stranger, but Rita is translating an article from
\nKompas newspaper which reckons it all out. Even the paper costs
\nRp 32,000 a month, but after all you need information.<\/p>\n
Nandang, Rita's husband, has managed to turn his hobby into a
\nprofession. He breeds songbirds, a kind of national sport in
\nJava, where songbird contests are often held. Nandang has a
\ntrophy on the cupboard in the front room.<\/p>\n
He teaches his birds to sing properly by playing them a tape
\nof the previous year's winner. Then whistling and singing resound
\nfrom the balcony and the entrance porch, where Nandang's pigeons
\nreply.<\/p>\n
But who has money for songbirds these days? A small workshop
\nwhere Nandang made high-class birdcages was forced to close.
\nAfter the rupiah collapsed, the price of imported parts rose
\nfivefold. Nandang had to send his workers home. He no longer
\ncontributes to the family income.<\/p>\n
In the massive economic crisis that has hit Indonesia, the
\nprice of rice, the staple food, has become the measure of all
\nthings. A year ago, Rita says, you could buy 20 kilograms of rice
\nfor 20,000 rupiah. Now it is perhaps seven.<\/p>\n
The student protests in the last few days were not directed
\nonly at the slow pace of democratization. They were a protest,
\ntoo, against the difficult living conditions under which more and
\nmore people are suffering.<\/p>\n
\"Down with prices, down with President Habibie,\" was one
\nslogan chanted by student demonstrators, whose revolt against the
\nestablishment was supported by unemployed people and youths from
\nthe poorer districts of Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Not long ago, Rita visited her parents in the village, who
\nwere celebrating the pregnancy of her younger sister. They had
\ninvited about 40 people from the neighborhood. Around a hundred
\nturned up. Formerly, people you hardly knew would not have come
\nalong without being invited. Now the pangs of hunger had driven
\nthem to do so.<\/p>\n
Those who one year ago were part of the Indonesian middle
\nclass are now poor, and those who were poor a year ago are now
\nstarving. Just reckon it up: a family whose breadwinner earns the
\nstatutory minimum wage of Rp 200,000 in Jakarta, has to spend 80
\npercent of its income on rice. (Two hundred thousand rupiah is
\nabout 25 dollars, but the unrealistically low exchange rate
\npermits no direct comparison)<\/p>\n
At best, that is enough to fill the family stomachs, but no
\nlonger to provide a balanced diet, especially for children.<\/p>\n
The situation is so bad that many people are withdrawing their
\nchildren from school.<\/p>\n
Samir, for example, says he has not sent his three school-age
\nchildren to their lessons for three months now, because he can no
\nlonger scrape together the modest fees.<\/p>\n
Until recently he managed to keep his head above water by
\nsupplying kerosene to households in a Jakarta suburb. As far as
\nhe is concerned, not only has the price of rice risen but his
\nturnover has dropped by a quarter. Since kerosene is the fuel
\nused for cooking, that can only mean that people are cooking
\nless.<\/p>\n
In September there was a sudden supply crisis. Nobody can
\nexplain why. In fact there has always been enough rice in the
\ncountry, the problem is one of poverty, not quantity. But
\nsuddenly the whole supply chain from Bulog, the state import
\nmonopoly, to small traders went haywire.<\/p>\n
People were saying that wholesalers were hoarding rice in the
\nhope of higher prices. Rumors started circulating that corrupt
\ncivil servants had sold state-subsidized rice to Malaysia. Panic
\nalmost broke out when looting and hunger revolts were reported
\nfrom several parts of the country.<\/p>\n
Since then the situation has intensified. The UN Food and
\nAgriculture Organization (FAO) was forced to revise downward its
\nforecasts for the second harvest.<\/p>\n
It now estimates a rice shortfall of 5.1 million tones for the
\nagricultural year. This means that Indonesia will have to import
\na quarter of the rice that comes onto the world market.<\/p>\n
The Soeharto regime, swept away by a protest movement in May
\nthis year, liked to boast that Indonesia had achieved self-
\nsufficiency in rice in 1984. Sadly, this achievement has long
\nsince melted away.<\/p>\n
To blame was the government's policy of industrialization,
\nwhich neglected agriculture and claimed more and more fertile
\nground. To make things worse, the Southeast Asian economic
\ncrisis, which hit no country as hard as Indonesia, coincided
\nexactly with the drought induced by the weather phenomenon El
\nNio, which caused the harvest to fail.<\/p>\n
At that point even farmers found themselves obliged to buy
\nrice, meaning they had less money to buy seeds and fertilizer.<\/p>\n
The second achievement of the Soeharto era was said to be that
\nthe number of people living below the poverty line had sharply
\ndeclined. However, this success, too, is now dissolving into thin
\nair.<\/p>\n
Official estimates assume that by the end of this year between
\n100 and 200 million Indonesians will be under the poverty line --
\na poverty line which is in any case set extremely low, at just
\nseven dollars per person per month. It is in no way realistic now
\nthat the all-determining price of rice has reached world levels.<\/p>\n
A hundred million poor people is a hundred million starving
\npeople is a hundred million potential troublemakers, looters and
\npillagers. The first rice disturbances have provided a foretaste
\nof what can be expected unless the situation is defused.<\/p>\n
Attacks on the Chinese minority which has dominated trade for
\ndecades -- and thereby provided a service to the rest of the
\ncommunity -- show the extent to which social peace and peace
\nbetween Indonesia's ethnic groups are endangered.<\/p>\n
The tremendous potential for conflict pent up in this mass
\npoverty has frightened not only the government but also the
\nInternational Monetary Fund (IMF). Originally, the IMF had tried
\nto help the ailing tiger back on its feet with some very tough
\nmeasures -- extremely high interest rates and strict budgetary
\ndiscipline.<\/p>\n
Now, however, it has taken the view that a social net to
\ncushion the alarming consequences of the crisis for people is
\nmore important than financial good conduct.<\/p>\n
The 43-million-dollar IMF program is moving more and more from
\nbeing a restructuring program to a program of aid. To avoid mass
\npoverty becoming mass starvation, the government is planning to
\nissue the needy with 10 kilograms of rice per month at Rp 1,000
\nper kilo.<\/p>\n
The number of needy families has been revised upward several
\ntimes, from one to two, seven and now 17.5 million families. That
\nmeans 85 millions people, bringing the program close to catering
\nfor the hundred million poor the government expects by the end of
\nthe year.<\/p>\n
A program on this scale would swallow up massive resources,
\nmaking the stability goal of a balanced budget recede far into
\nthe distance. So far, such measures have had no effect. Rice
\ndeliveries for the poor arrive occasionally, but by no means
\nregularly.<\/p>\n
The government has obviously not specified who should receive
\nsubsidized rice. Samir, the kerosene seller, says he sends his
\nwife along whenever he hears that a shipment of cheap rice has
\narrived. If there is enough, she gets a few kilograms, otherwise
\nshe doesn't.<\/p>\n
The market, allegedly the incorruptible judge of what is
\neconomically reasonable, is reacting with confusion. The rice
\nmerchant in Pasar Klender in East Jakarta cannot help much
\neither.<\/p>\n
Why is there too little rice one week and more than enough the
\nnext? Why do prices vary from day to day, and why did people buy
\nmost rice when its was most expensive?<\/p>\n
He only knows one thing for sure. His sales have declined,
\neven though rice is the staple food. The Chinese merchant next
\ndoor, who sells soap, salt, sugar and tea, knows by exactly how
\nmuch. He sells 60 percent less than he used to do.<\/p>\n
The Pasar Klender district chairman sums up the mood of the
\npeople. Things are getting worse for them by the day. Virtually
\nall the young people are unemployed. The people up there only
\nthink about themselves, they don't care about the problems of
\nordinary people.<\/p>\n
In view of the general plight Indonesia is in, perhaps there
\nis nothing left to stabilize but the rice price.<\/p>\n
-- Sueddeutsche Zeitung<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/rice-the-measure-of-all-things-in-indonesia-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }