Poor accept poverty as their lot in life

Poor accept poverty as their lot in life

By Fadjar, M. Achadi and Tjahjono Ep.

YOGYAKARTA (JP): More than a year and a half have passed, but
there is no sign that the crisis will soon be over. Life becomes
more difficult and more and more people become poor.

As the economic wheel gets stuck, many factories and companies
have to lay off their workers, if they are lucky enough not to
close down the business. Many of the laid off laborers, most of
whom are migrants, have to return home, even though some insist
on staying in the hope that they might find another job - even if
it means begging.

Meanwhile, the hard life in the villages has also made the
people come to the city. The increasing number of newcomers who
are homeless is obvious, especially during the month of Ramadhan.
The vagrants come from various areas in Central Java, like
Purwodadi, Grobogan and Semarang. Most of them, farmers who can't
expect anything from infertile land at home, become beggars or
street singers.

The new migrants operate at traffic lights or from house to
house in villages.

The poor in Yogyakarta comprise not only newcomers, but also
permanent residents. In this city of education and culture,
poverty is masked by the traditional semi-feudal norms. On the
basis of nrimo, a fatalistic philosophy of life, they accept
poverty as their lot.

Among the poor residents are people who live in the crowded
Code slums, at the heart of the city, under the arches of the
Gondolayu bridge. Here, hundreds of families have lived below the
poverty line for decades.

East of the Code river there are many artistic bamboo houses,
designed by YB Mangunwijaya, a Catholic priest, writer and
architect. Each house has a colorful geometric design and is
separated from the others by an alley 60 cm or 70 cm wide.

Several elderly people chatted in front of a house, which is
being renovated as a meeting hall, while a number of children
played in the drizzle that afternoon.

West of the river is a contrast. Shanties made of cardboard
are erected in a random way. Some are as close as one meter to
the river bank.

Kusbari, 75, a member of the Code community, said that he had
once joined a transmigration program in Sumatra, and then worked
as a construction laborer in Jakarta. A native of Wonosobo,
Central Java, Kusbari now works as a becak driver. He earns about
Rp 5,000 a day.

He lives with his 60-year-old wife, Endang Wahyuni in a 15-
meter-square house. They sleep on a plastic mat that covers their
bamboo bed. Near the bed is an old broken chair. Several dirty
kitchen utensils were seen scattered through the room.

Several months ago, Endang was involved in a traffic accident
and her right hand became paralyzed, forcing her to stop work as
a scavenger.

"It is not every day I can eat," Kusbari said while playing
with his pet, a singing bird, on the porch of the house.

"I don't care about the political situation in Indonesia.
What's important is that I can eat every day," he said.

Sukimin, 48, lives in a house of 30 square meters with his
wife, Puji Winarsin, and six children. A native of Yogyakarta, in
the 1970s he went to Jakarta and worked as a newspaper man. In
1978 he returned home to marry Puji Winarsih, who was then 12
years old. He became a construction worker, but there were less
and less orders during the crisis. As a becak (three-wheel
pedicab) driver, he can make between Rp 6,000 and Rp 7,000 a day.

"If I can only buy rice, I consider myself lucky," he said.

Another man who is facing a hard life is Kartono, 42. He said
he arrived in the city only three weeks ago, leaving his wife and
a 12-year-old child in their home town of Salatiga, Central Java.
He decided to go to Yogyakarta because he could not find a job as
a construction worker in Salatiga.

In Yogyakarta, he has become a scavenger and makes up to Rp
6,000 on a lucky day. He lives in a temporary house made of old
wood pieces in Kuningan, Catur Tunggal, Sleman regency.

"I don't know what I should do. I thank God I can still
breathe today," he said.

Mujimin, who lives in Kulonprogro regency with his parents in
law, said that he used to work in a spare parts shop in Jakarta.
Six months ago, he said, he was laid off without any reason or
compensation.

He makes a living by pedaling his becak, and gets a daily
income of about Rp 4,000.

"That's not bad, at least I am still alive," he said.