Gunungkidul exiles send Rp 100m a day back home

Gunungkidul exiles send Rp 100m a day back home

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Gunungkidul, known for its infertile land in a mountainous area
in Yogyakarta province, has been flooded with postal money orders
of more than Rp 100 million a day for the past few weeks in the
lead up to Idul Fitri and Christmas celebrations.

Over the last two weeks, a total of more than Rp 1 billion has
been sent through the postal service, "Gunungkidul people-in-
exile", to their relatives in the regency, a staff member of
state-owned PT Pos Indonesia in Wonosari said recently.

Edward Edjo, the supervisor of the service unit at the
Gunungkidul Post Office, said that more than 250 sheets of postal
money orders were being sent to Gunungkidul each day. Most
senders were living in greater Jakarta though money had been
coming in from Bandung in West Java, Surabaya in East Java and
Semarang in Central Java.

"Like previous years, we expect to receive some Rp 3.5 billion
this month," he said.

The amount of postal money orders has long been an annual
phenomenon in Gunungkidul, especially ahead of the Idul Fitri and
Christmas holidays. Last year, for example, the amount of postal
money orders sent to the region in just one month totaled 3,803
sheets worth some Rp 3.2 billion.

"Most of the money was sent to the subdistricts of Ponjong,
Semin, and Karangmojo," said Edjo, adding that most of this
year's postal money orders were also sent to the same regions.

"We expect to receive more this year because we have a
relatively better economic condition than last year," Iwan Busro
Hasan, head of the media coverage section of the Gunungkidul
government's office, told the Post by phone.

Iwan said that Gunungkidul's infertile lands had forced its
residents to work hard to survive.

"A majority of youths, including high school graduates, have
gone out to change their lives and to develop their futures," he
said.

According to Iwan, some 30 percent of the regency's total
population of 753.000 had left the area to strive for a better
life in other cities -- 90 percent of those for Jakarta or its
surrounds.

Of the 30 percent, said Iwan, half of them came from the sub-
districts of Ponjong, Semin, and Karangmojo. Some 50 percent of
the total worked as household servants and factory labors, while
others had become successful businesspeople.

Iwan said it was not surprising, therefore, that the region
had been receiving some 100 to 150 postal money orders a month.

"A Gunungkidul person who has lived in Jakarta for a long
time, for example, established some three years ago a training
center here where Gunungkidul people are able to learn how to
start running Bakmi Jawa (Javanese noodle cooking) businesses in
Greater Jakarta," Iwan said.

The local government, too, according to Iwan, had established
a similar training center for household servants two years ago,
through the local workers office in cooperation with local non-
government organizations.

"We do realize what they could contribute to the region,
especially in increasing the people's wealth," Iwan said, adding
that many of the Gunungkidul families had enjoyed the benefit of
having relatives in Jakarta and other prosperous cities.