A day in the life of a monkey seller
A day in the life of a monkey seller
Mat Jaes forgets the year of his birth but thinks he may be
about 26 years old. Born in the Central Java town of Setamplat,
Mat began his working life as a becak (pedicab) driver, before
moving to the capital to earn a better living, which he says he
does by peddling monkeys at the notorious bird market on Jl.
Pramuka in Central Jakarta -- a trading center for all manner of
endangered animals, and home to, among others, orangutan and sun
bear smugglers. He spoke to The Jakarta Post's contributor
William Furney.
JAKARTA (JP): "I get up at 3 a.m. to play football with the
lads and watch television. It's time to pray at 5 a.m., and then
I go back to bed. Or rather, the floor. I live in a market
building -- Genjing market in West Jakarta. It's a fruit and
vegetable market, but they allow me to sleep there for Rp 100,000
a month, which is quite cheap. Lots of my friends stay there too,
so it's not that bad.
I get up again at 10 a.m. and go to my place of work, which is
at Pasar Burung (bird market) in Central Jakarta. I'll have
breakfast of rice and fish at a warung (food stall) and then go
to my monkeys. I keep them in a special set of cages, which is on
wheels; it's easy to move around.
They are beach monkeys from various areas of Sumatra, and they
need to be washed first thing in the morning, as their cages are
small and they foul them up overnight. So I take them to the
public toilet in the market and clean them there. I give them
bananas when they're back in their cages. That's their favorite
food.
I have two types of monkey, but I'm not sure what the exact
species is. I don't go to Sumatra to get them - a man comes to
the market. I pay him Rp 50,000 and Rp 70,000 for the two kinds,
which I then sell for Rp 75,000 and Rp 200,000 (respectively).
It's better that he does the work. If I were to go to Sumatra to
get monkeys, it'd cost me about Rp 500,000 for transport, and so
on. There's no way I can afford it. People bargain to get a
better price from me, of course. So, I'll always go down a bit --
but not that much.
Monkeys with long tails are cheaper, while those with short
tails are more expensive. And there are good monkeys and bad
ones. I sell about one monkey a day, on average. I've been
working here for two years now, and in that time I'd say I've
sold a great number of monkeys.
Life here is not that bad; it's usually okay, but sometimes it
can be difficult, especially when there are no customers.
Everyone likes monkeys anyway, so it's not always that difficult
to make a sale. But a lot of people come here just to see the
animals and birds; they don't want to buy anything. Most of the
Westerners who come here want to look and take photographs.
That's not good for business.
I have lunch twice if I have the cash, at a warung nearby. On
days I don't have any money, I won't have anything at all. It's
better to stock up on food while you can.
I barely made Rp 5,000 when I was working as a becak driver in
my village. It was a waste of time, and that's why I came here.
I'm better off selling monkeys. I got into the business through a
friend who was working at the market.
There's a big sign here that says it's forbidden to sell
endangered species, such as orangutans, cendrawasih (Birds of
Paradise), tigers and eagles, and people pay attention to that.
So there's never a problem if the police come to inspect the
market. And I'm not causing any trouble by selling my monkeys, as
they're not endangered
I finish for the day about 5 p.m., having made about Rp
100,000. I'll give the monkeys more bananas and lock them up for
the day. There are wooden flaps at either side of the cages that
I lock to make sure no one will steal the monkeys.
I play football in the evenings and watch television. I don't
have a girlfriend, as they're too expensive, especially when you
get married. It costs too much. And getting married itself is far
too expensive in Jakarta. So I go to a certain area nearby and
meet some of the women on the street; many of my friends do the
same. The women are good, and they only charge Rp 20,000. I go
there a few times a week.
I went home for Lebaran (post-fasting month celebration), for
five days. And I realized again that Jakarta is a better place to
be. My day ends at about 10 p.m., when I settle down to sleep
inside the market, a smell of overripe fruit and vegetables in
the air."