NU congress means fortune for locals

Slamet Susanto and Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post/Surakarta

Sartini, 36, a food vendor outside Donohudan Haj Dormitory in Surakarta, Central Java, which hosted the recently completed Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) congress, said her income drastically increased during the five-day national convention.

"In normal days, I alone am able to serve all the customers. But over the last week, I've had three staff people always busy because so many people are coming to eat," she told The Jakarta Post.

Previously, Sartini, who runs a soto (Javanese soup) food stall in front of the congress venue, normally goes through around five kilograms of rice each day, but this week she was up to 20 kilograms of rice to keep all the congress delegates fed. "Normally, we sell around three kilograms of chicken, and that's a good day. But most days this week, we sold 10 kilograms.

"From 6 a.m. to well into the night, I was constantly serving up food, without taking a break. I would immediately fall asleep after closing the stall," she added.

Sartini is among a number of local residents benefiting economically from the congress, which was opened on Sunday by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. More than 3,500 participants from 30 provinces across the country were in attendance, with the chief aim of electing a new chairperson.

Less than 2,000 delegates can be accommodated in the 34 hotels across Surakarta and many others stay inside the Donohudan dormitory or have to rent houses from local residents.

Almost all of the houses near the venue have been rented out by delegates and media crew covering the event, while the owners moved out temporarily.

At least one school, located 200 meters from the venue, was closed for a week as it was also used to house participants, including activists of the NU Crisis Center.

The house rentals were quite costly, ranging from Rp 100,000 to Rp 400,000 per room, for one night. Relatively equal to the prices that hotels in the city were charging.

Delegates also pay up to Rp 1.5 million per house if they want to rent a house for the entire duration of the congress. "In my area, around 30 houses have been rented out entirely, all but four in my neighborhood unit," said Muji Rahardjo, 53, the neighborhood unit chief in Ngemplak village, around 500 meters west of the venue.

However, he said the four that did not rent their houses still made a pretty penny because they rented out one or two rooms for between Rp 200,000 and Rp 400,000 per night. "So, all have shared in the good fortune. If such an event were to take place all the time, we would quickly become rich," Muji dreamily envisioned.

His house, consisting of two rooms, was rented to the secretariat of the NU Students Association (IPNU). He received Rp 1.5 million for one week.

Along with his wife and a son, Muji moved to a warehouse located behind his house. "For me, it's no problem to sleep here together. I don't know if we'll ever again reap such a big amount of money in such a short time period."

His 34-year old neighbor, Sarini did the same thing. She, her husband and two children were not reluctant to temporarily stay at their relative's house.

Sarini charged her guests Rp 1 million for the week for each bedroom in the house. Her house has five bedrooms.

"All my rooms were booked up by congress delegates. It's no problem for us to stay a while at my relative's place. Maybe, there will be no other time to gain such a good fortune," said Sarini, whose monthly income ranges from Rp 500,000 to Rp 700,000.

A photographer with the Kedaulatan Yogyakarta daily newspaper said that the rent for a local house was the same as the hotels were charging.

He admitted he paid Rp 1.5 million to rent a room during the congress. "With five friends, we rented two rooms," said the photographer, Eko Budiarto.

Though being costly, he said, he preferred to live in a house because the location was near the Donohudan dormitory, which is 15 kilometers from downtown, where the hotels are located.

"If we stayed overnight in a better hotel, we'd have to commute all the way through Solo (Surakarta) each day. Journalists with local newspapers, like us, need access to the venue to quickly update information at any time. If we stay in a hotel downtown, it would make that difficult for us, especially during the rainy season and the slower traffic," Eko said.