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.