In praise of the entrepreneurs of Jakarta

By Myra Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): No, no, this article is not about the high- living wheeler-dealers of Jakarta. Too much has been written about them already. I'm going to tell you about a lesser breed of entrepreneurs, those who make it from rags to riches, those who come to Jakarta from the provinces with only one dream: To become rich.

And as there are many ways to become rich, these people try all kinds of things to reach this goal. Many people think that they all become criminals or at least join the legions of the unemployed. Actually, few become involved in crime.

However, what they end up doing depends very much on the connections they have in the big cities.

Most of them come to work as domestic help or laborers in the construction sector. Their relatives in the city help them get a job. Others get better jobs, becoming taxi drivers, for example. They only need a driver's license, they don't need to know the roads. Often they'll not even have the slightest notion of where they are going.

Sometimes they start as apprentices, or as shop assistants or waiters, but the smart ones are not happy until they can start something up on their own. So when they have enough money, they may open a little stall, selling everything from sweets to sandals, all dangling from the ceiling of the little hut they have made out of some wooden boards. This work is not without danger. Sometimes a team of law and order officers comes and takes away their stalls. Or a burglar may try to prise open the stall, which they leave it unattended at night.

There are also food sellers, selling food in their pushcarts. Every morning they push the carts, equipped with a stove, plates, a pail of water and a bench, to crowded places and wait for customers. The ice man has to grind his ice in the morning before he sets out, and store the ice in a container to keep it cold. He'll have a number of glass containers with colorful syrups and jellies. The food man has to prepare his food, so he can serve his customers fast and well. When everything is sold out, he heads home, tired after a day's work. These people face "clean-up operations" from time to time. A big truck comes, and the little restaurant is taken to the police station lock, stock and barrel. It is at these times that we can observe true solidarity: as soon as the police appear, the vendors warn each other and try to save as much as they can by hiding their belongings.

Then there are the artisans, who work in hairdresser's salons or for dressmakers and tailors. It is about one of the tailors that I wanted to tell you about. To me he is special, because he has not only made it from rags to riches, but he also helped me to convert my rags into dresses like those of the rich.

Pak Didung has a little shop opposite my house. He too started small and was allowed to build a little shack in a fire exit between two houses. He bought a sewing machine and started sewing. His clientele grew and soon he took in an assistant, then another, and then another. He married a nice girl and she took sewing lessons to help in the business. She too seemed to be quite gifted, because soon she had her own clients and I was one of them.

It was a perfect arrangement for me, because in spite of my modest means I like to dress like a supermodel.

Ibu Didung can make nice dresses for me for little money and from inexpensive material. The secret is this: My friend Dea, who is an impulsive buyer of designer dresses, always comes back from her trips abroad with a number of dresses designed by Chanel, Givenchy, Escada or Donna Karan. I just have to borrow them, take them to Ibu Didung and she will copy them for me. Sometimes I think I look even smarter than Dea herself. Pak Didung gives each customer plastic bags with his name to carry their dresses home. I wonder whether all his customers carry them with the same feeling of pride.

The Didungs are doing very well now. When their children grew up they bought a little minibus to drive them to school. But then the neighbor's kids also needed rides. So why not take them too, for a small fee to cover gas and maintenance?

I did not realize how well they had done until they moved.

Pak Didung rented a place for three million rupiah per year and bought a small house for himself. After all, he has seven assistants now, all hardworking people, who may soon leave him and start a tailor shop of their own...