A day in the life of a 'bakpao' peddler

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.