Alit takes journey to fair trade personally

Dewi Anggraeni, Contributor, Melbourne, Australia

As information technology advances, people in various corners of the world become increasingly aware of their own potential, a development especially noticeable in the southern hemisphere.

This is significant given the recognition that most world power resides in the northern hemisphere. This fact is often taken as immutable, so much so that awareness of their own potential only causes frustration to those in the southern hemisphere.

It therefore took tremendous courage and vision for Craft Victoria in Melbourne to found The South Project, which aims to take this awareness further and facilitate continuing dialog between people living south of the equator.

The first conference organized by The South Project, South 1, took place in early July in Melbourne, sponsored by 20 foundations and organizations. It was attended by artists, intellectuals, activists and business practitioners from different countries in the southern hemisphere, like those from Southeast and South Asia, South Pacific, South Africa, South America and, of course, Australia itself.

Indonesia, represented by Agung Alit of Bali and Adi Jumaadi of East Java, brought up the issues of fair trade and the environment.

Agung Alit, founder of Mitra Bali Foundation, points to South 1's potential to raise the collective consciousness of the people of the southern hemisphere, especially for their rich creativity.

"We can share experiences, learn from each other and thus enrich our cultural and political awareness. We have been in a global era for some time, yet we have yet to benefit equally from globalization," Alit said.

He offered the example of Mitra Bali Foundation.

"Our work and operation are based on the principles of fair trade. We try to redress the balance of the existing trade by paying more attention to the workers, the producers of the goods.

"We try to empower the producers by offering them a 50 percent deposit on any order we make. That way they don't have to turn to loan sharks for their initial capital. We also keep our operation transparent to the producers. We tell them where we are selling the goods, what the prices are, and what markups we need to cover operational costs."

Alit recounted that as a fresh law graduate from Udayana University in Bali, he had worked with Pekerti Foundation in Jakarta, and there he learned about fair trade.

Upon his return to Bali, where he began to work in the tourism industry, he observed how vulnerable Balinese craft workers were to exploitation.

When he brought tourists to the numerous art shops around the island, he was given a commission of between 40 percent to 60 percent for any purchase made. In the meantime, he discovered that the producers themselves only received a small fraction of the price, and often months after delivery.

It disturbed Alit so much that when Mitra Bali Foundation was established 11 years ago, they initiated a program of alternative tourism, where they took prospective buyers of crafts direct to the producers, cutting off the middlemen.

Alit also places a lot of importance on transparency to consumers.

"They have the right to know if the goods they are buying are free of exploitation. And we explain that we don't give commission to people who bring buyers to us. And we don't encourage bargaining, because all the prices have been scrupulously calculated," he said.

The objectives of The South Project sit well with him, because anything which has the promise of lifting the profile of local cultures, helping local workers to gain respect for their work, is attractive to Alit.

The idealist drive of this fair trade activist did not just fall from the sky. In fact, he has a very interesting background.

Born in Kesiman, Denpasar, he hardly knew his father. "My father was accused of being a communist, and was murdered, when I was very young," he said.

Alit grew up with the stigma of being a child of a communist, knowing from very early in life what unfairness and injustice really mean.

"The stigma also means I had difficulty finding work. Working in the government sector was out of the question. You'd only need to have someone with a grudge against you, who reported you as 'unclean', and you'd promptly get into trouble."

But not working in the government sector does not mean there are no obstacles. When he was still working as a tourist guide, he met an Australian academic in his own pura (Balinese Hindu temple). They began to chat, and Alit told him about his father.

When the academic returned to Australia, he sent Alit a book titled Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology. It was discovered at the post office. Censorship was rife then.

"I was summoned to the Attorney General's Office. They knew my background. I was then asked why I'd sent for that book. I told them I'd never sent for it. I said it had been sent to me probably as a gift."

Fortunately, the authorities accepted his explanation, and he got off with a warning to stay away from Marxism and a lecture to embrace and promote the state ideology Pancasila instead.

Alit then worked for Bali Legal Aid Foundation for a year, before feeling that he needed to move on. He wanted to put what he had learned about fair trade into practice. As luck would have it, he met a Japanese tourist who liked his ideas and ambition. She suggested Alit start a new body, and she would give him a grant.

"I used that grant as the initial capital for Mitra Bali operation. And we haven't looked back since," said Alit.