A day in the life of a 'bakpao' peddler

By Santo Koesoebjono

WASSENAAR, The Netherlands (JP): "Pao, pao," shouts Bambang one night on his way home from his stand in front of the SMP (middle school) 12 in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, where he sells bakpao. To him, home means the bakpao factory where 30 male workers and their boss work, sleep and produce bakpao. When the bakpao are ready these workers sell them as small entrepreneurs using their own pushcart. Their life depends on the sale of bakpao.

Bakpao, white cakes stuffed with pork meat, are a Chinese snack (bak is pork, pao is cake). In Indonesia, the cakes have a variety of fillings, usually chicken meat or sweet green beans (kacang ijo) rather than pork.

At around 6:30 a.m. the men start making the dough for the bakpao. Some knead the yeast and dough, others stuff it with chicken meat or precooked kacang ijo balls. After being stuffed these white cakes are put on a tray that holds 21 bakpao. The bakpao filled with kacang ijo are marked with a red spot to distinguish them from the chicken meat bakpao. Fourteen trays are piled up, one on top of the other, and then put in a steamer for around 25 minutes. Now the bakpao are ready for consumption.

The workers and their boss do all these activities together. The boss is also responsible for the daily purchase of chickens (eight to 10 chickens, 2 kilograms each), 50 kilograms of flour, green beans, sugar and salt. He also prepares the chicken filling that has to be made fresh everyday. The green bean filling is cooked and ground and this process takes six hours. Each time the green bean filling is made, enough is usually made for a two to three day supply. The boss himself makes the yeast that gives a special flavor to the dough. The recipe of the yeast is kept a secret, as it is the yeast rather than the flour that makes bakpao delicious.

The employer and factory owner, Pak Sukarso, started the factory in 1988 after having worked for years as a bakpao worker/seller for different employers.

In the beginning the company and the bakpao were named Sukarso but "such a name sounded strange for bakpao, something that was originally Chinese", said one of the workers. So the name was changed to Liem Tiam, reminding the customers of the name of another famous bakpao factory. The factory is located in the Prapanca area of Kebayoran Baru, in a small blind alley too narrow for a bajaj(three-wheeled motorized vehicle) to pass. A creek, where the water is barely flowing and has a color and smell familiar to big city dwellers, borders the factory. This is understandable, since the waste from the factory and the surrounding houses flows into this creek.

By 12.30 p.m., when the bakpao's are cooked and ready for sale, all 30 workers swarm out to various parts of South Jakarta. Each worker takes some 50 bakpao in his cart. A bakpao is sold for Rp 2,000 each -- raised from Rp 1,500 since the economic slump in 1998.

"Of course, students get a discount," said Bambang.

The seller gets Rp 1,000 for each bakpao he sells. Meaning when a seller has sold 30 bakpao, he earns Rp 30,000. With this money he has to buy food, cigarettes and everything else necessary to maintain his life, and to save for his family in the village. That morning the workers were very excited because one of them had got an order of 200 bakpao for a party.

During the fasting month, the sellers leave the factory later in the afternoon at around 5:00 a.m., nearing the time when fasting ends. Sales usually decline during this month.

Each seller has his own cart, costing Rp 1.2 million, that includes a steamer and a stove to warm up the bakpao.

Bambang said proudly that he had managed to pay back the loan to buy his cart and equipment in approximately six months. Like many other street vendors, some bakpao sellers have a fixed stand in public places such as in front of Blok M mall, Apotik Jaya, Maternity Hospital Asih, Puri Cinere hospital or in Pasar Minggu. Others walk around, covering a distance of 10 kms to 15 kms everyday. The men return to the factory at around ten o'clock at night, except for two who return at 2 a.m. because their stands are located in front of bars. The men work very long hours everyday.

The workers and their boss all come from Central Java, where their families live. Every four to six weeks they go home for about ten days.

"This is necessary since we work seven days per week and the work is very tiring. It is nice to see my wife and two small kids again. Moreover, I have initiated the construction of a musollah (small mosque) in our community and I want to see its progress", said Bambang, 33, who also supports his parents and parents-in- law.

In this factory, when somebody is on holiday or falls ill, a person who functions as a reserve uses his cart, enabling him to earn an income. When this reserve person cannot borrow a cart to sell bakpao, he helps making bakpao and gets food from the boss.

The close working relationships and good atmosphere do not hide the fact that living conditions leave much to be desired. A room of three by six meters is used to prepare the bakpao. Above this room, just under the roof, a space has been made for sleeping.

The men and their boss sleep under work desks and in the sleeping room upstairs on mats, one next to the other.

Although the window is open and a ramshackle propeller is turning, the room under the roof is very hot and stuffy, even in the early morning. Three bathrooms and toilets are shared by the workers and their boss. The boss provides only one cup of tea with sugar every morning. No health insurance or other support is provided for the workers. To tackle the problem of health care, a kind of insurance system has been set up. Every Saturday evening Rp 500 is collected from each worker. This money is then used to help colleagues when they are ill or to make a contribution when there is a death in the family. Gains and charges are equally shared.

Despite poor living conditions and hard work, nobody wants to leave the factory. Fierce competition refrains them from starting their own factory. According to Sadi, who has sold bakpao since 1977, there are over 60 factories in Jakarta, 20 of which have been operating since the early 1980s. Moreover, the workers like the relationship with the colleagues and the boss. All activities are shared and done together.

"We do not compete with each other. On the contrary, when there is a party somewhere we invite our colleagues. So the rejeki (luck) is shared".

Everyday, a list of the names of vendors and the numbers of unsold bakpao the previous day is posted by the front door. These unsold bakpao are divided equally among the 30 workers to be sold that day, because these bakpao remain tasty for two days. These workers practice real gotong royong (togetherness).

Bambang and his colleagues are workers producing bakpao, as well as small entrepreneurs selling them. Such small and medium size enterprises are the backbone of the national economy, as confirmed by economist Thee Kian Wie. There is a real need to improve the working and living conditions in small enterprises.

Meanwhile, Bambang disappears in the shadows of a Jakarta night on his way home, far away from the millennium craze.

The writer is an economist-demographer based in the Netherlands.