Islanders' daily life no paradise idyll
PULAU KELAPA (JP): Lying 30 nautical miles north of Jakarta in the Thousand Islands is the Kelurahan Pulau Kelapa (Coconut Island subdistrict).
The subdistrict consists of 64 islands -- three of which are home to fishing communities and the rest of which are privately owned or reserved for tourists.
The islands are well protected by smaller surrounding islands. Calm seas, mild currents and soft breezes are typical weather here.
In the midst of the calm, azure sea lies a typical traditional community shoved aside by modernization, misgovernance and social dysfunction.
On Pulau Kelapa, one of the islands inhabited by a fishing community, 2,087 families are cramped onto 13 hectares of land. The other two inhabited islands, Pulau Kelapa II and Pulau Harapan, are not much different.
Local people refer to themselves as Orang Pulo (island people). They are a blend of Bugis, Sundanese and Javanese and have occupied the islands since the 18th century.
According to Abdul Manap, former village chief of Pulau Kelapa, when Krakatau erupted in 1883, 500 people lived on Pulau Kelapa.
Time for the communities seems to be marked by the change in seasonal winds and extraordinary events such as the volcano's eruption.
"Orang Pulo are an assiduous community. They may be characterized as hard workers and rational and prudent people," said researcher Yayan Indriatmoko.
Yayan, Dian Herdiani and Hasantoha from the University of Indonesia (UI) school of anthropology lived with the community for three months while conducting research, which last year won an award at The XI National Week of Science.
They found that Orang Pulo viewed themselves as a disadvantaged community isolated from outside progress.
Their view might not be totally wrong. Pulau Kelapa, Pulau Kelapa II and Pulau Harapan are surrounded by private and tourist islands. Large yachts and tourists from many different countries frequent the islands at weekends.
"Orang Pulo are perceptive. They have observed the changes and then weighted their living standards against the luxurious lives of visitors which they bump into in their own backyards at weekends," the report said.
Direct interaction with only the most elite members of society may be the reason for the narrow social perspective held by the fishing communities.
From the window of his raised house on the west side of the island, Pak Musro, a fisherman, looks over at Pulau Pamegaran every night. While Pulau Kelapa is cramped, the privately-owned Pamegaran is empty.
It is owned by Probosutedjo, a well-known Jakarta businessman, who occasionally goes there at the weekend. Otherwise the island is only inhabited by four attendants who rake up the leaves. "Tuan (master) rarely comes these days," one of the attendants said.
The Jakarta municipality's plans for the area currently focus on the further development of tourism.
The plan disregards the communities' traditional way of life and current standard of living, according to the researchers.
Only 10 percent of their catches are bought by the island resorts here, Yayan said. The fishermen have to look for buyers as far away as Cianjur in West Java to sell the rest, he added.
Although investments and job opportunities are always welcomed in the area, the development plan does not focus strongly enough on ensuring that the benefits of tourism are passed on to the local people.
Poor education and skills place job seekers from the islands at low entry levels in the tourism industry, with wages of no more than Rp 110,000 a month.
Although the wage comes with security, the high cost of living in the islands and the limited availability of jobs means that the industry has a minimal impact on the overall welfare of the community. Less than five percent of resident families currently depend on tourism for a living.
It is unlikely that more island resorts will be developed while the crisis persists. However, future investments and plans, according to one of the inhabitants, "will be gladly received, as long as they keep our community in the picture." (46)