City folks get hero's welcome in home towns

City folks get hero's welcome in home towns

By Fairus Husaini

The National Family Planning Board recently organized a media
tour across southern Sumatra and Java to see how villages are
planning for the return of their former residents for Idul Fitri.
The Jakarta Post prepared this report.

MAGETAN, East Java (JP): The annual exodus of big city
residents to their rural home villages is more than just people
celebrating Idul Fitri with their loved ones.

As the tradition grows stronger in modern Indonesia, the
seasonal exodus has now come to mean a massive cash infusion from
urban to rural Indonesia.

This, in more ways than one, is helping to tip the balance of
the government's development program which heavily favors urban
areas, often at the expense of rural sector. Some economists
estimate that between 70 and 80 percent of Indonesia's money
supply circulates in urban areas. Jakarta alone is believed to
account for more than 60 percent.

It is hardly surprising that so many rural folks anticipate
with high hopes the yearly return of their sons and daughters
from the big cities.

Village administrators also recognize the potential
contribution these returnees can have for village economies.

Here, as in several other towns in East Java, the
administrations have put up huge banners saying "Selamat Datang"
(Welcome Home) at main entrances.

The National Family Planning Board, whose tasks include
overseeing the government's poverty elimination drive, explains
that the visitors are considered heroes in their villages.

Many houses then use the money to plaster their floors with
cement, or even marble tiles. According to the board, the cash
inflow has a multiplier effect on the local economy as demand
grows for construction materials and workers.

Projects

In some regencies, community projects are proposed which the
returnees are expected to finance.

Magetan Regency Chief Soedharmono said that because all
villages but one in his area have plastered floors, he decided to
organize a project last year to help the homes in Nglopang.

Now, thanks to the Idul Fitri funds, all the houses in the
small village have a plastered floor, he said.

In Pacitan, East Java, the administration built a special
boarding school for poor students from surrounding villages.
Parents need only to pay Rp 35,000 a month. The facility was
built by a foundation which receives donations from public
figures like Minister Haryono Suyono and former Minister of
Social Affairs Sulasikin Moerpratomo and Pacitan's residents
living in big cities.

Pacitan regency chief Sutjipto said the administration has
also built a mosque with money sent in by young Pacitan women who
work as domestic servants in big cities.

Sutjipto said that Pacitan receives at least Rp 50 million per
month from the big cities through state banks and post offices.

Ngawi, another East Java regent town, has organized a fund
raising campaign to finance plastering in the homes of its
villagers.

The administration, which targets Ngawi's residents in the big
cities, has opened an account at Bank BNK 46 to handle the
donations.

Ngawi regent chief Subagyo proudly lists the government
officials who come from Ngawi, including M. Sudibyo, the chief of
the state intelligence board, and Inten Suweno, the minister of
social services. "We ask them to look in their hearts to make
donations for Ngawi's development.

These are just some of the examples the government's program
Bangga Suka Desa (Proud Like My Village) which is overseen by the
National Family Planning Board.

The phrase however is an abbreviation of Pembangunan Keluarga
Modern Dalam Suasana Kota di Pedesaan, which means developing a
modern family in the villages with a suburban atmosphere.

The board's chairman Haryono Suyono, who is the state minister
of population, said before the program was started, many
villagers did not think of plastered floors as a priority. The
villagers were not exactly poor but they felt they could live
with dirt floors, which the government considers unhealthy.

Programs

Haryono said Bangga Suka Desa counts heavily on town folks for
village development. But even before the government program, many
living in big cities had organized their own programs.

Bataks in urban areas have Marsipature Hutanabe, West
Sumatrans have Gebu Minang and Yogyakartans have Gebyar Yogya,
which have been used to help provide for mosques, schools and
scholarships.

Now the Ngawi administration is trying to use its Bangga Suka
Desa program to promote local enterprises like the village's
famed kripik tempe, a snack made from tempe that is often given
as a souvenir.

Suwarti, a 43-year-old kripik tempe producer, says her
production during the Idul Fitri holiday has doubled to 100 kg a
day.

"There is always big demand around Idul Fitri time. People
coming home to Ngawi will want to eat them and also buy some for
their friends back in Jakarta," Suwarti said.