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.