Pramuka island residents feel a bitch of misery

Pramuka island residents feel a bitch of misery

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By Rudi Madanir -- 10 pts Metrolight

PRAMUKA ISLAND (JP): How does it feel to be born poor and
spend the rest of your life being poor?

Amiadi and Asmara, a couple living on Panggang Island of the
Seribu Islands, are so poor they sometimes have to make do with
boiled rice since they cannot afford anything else. Even then the
rice is government rationed.

The couple, who have been married for four years, work
together to try to make ends meet. Asmara, 22, earns the family's
income by doing laundry for their better-off neighbors. Her
disabled husband Amiadi pitches in by ironing clothes because
that is all he can do.

When work is available, the couple earn between Rp 3,000
(US$1.39) and Rp 5,000 a day.

"But there aren't always clothes to wash," said Amiadi, 24.

Times are especially trying when none of their neighbors bring
clothes for washing because they cannot go to sea and thus have
no money to spare for such a luxury.

Amiadi became disabled years ago, and is now confined to a
large wooden table specially designed for him. The table, which
is set on the terrace of their home, is the only place available
for him to perform his activities.

The Seribu Islands, stretching from between 10 and 70
kilometers north of mainland Jakarta, cover a total land area of
1,180 hectares and a water area of 69 square kilometers. Only 11
of the islands are inhabited, and these have a total population
of 14,868 people.

Seribu islanders typically rely on fishing for their
livelihood. Even for those without physical disabilities, fishing
is a difficult business. The islanders are only able to take to
the sea during seven months of the year, from April to October,
when the weather obliges. The rest of the year is dominated by
the west monsoon.

"When the westward seasonal wind comes and triggers giant
waves, nobody can go fishing," said Anwar, head of administration
affairs of the Seribu Islands district.

This wind, locally called musim barat, has forced the
government to support the islanders by supplying them with rice
when the weather prevents them from earning money through
fishing.

"We call the ration beras musim barat, the monsoon rice," said
Anwar, one of the few Panggang islanders with a university
degree.

Constraint

This natural constraint has forced the islanders to make seven
months of income last for the entire year, and the result is
poverty.

Indeed, poverty has always beset inhabitants of the Seribu
Islands. And yet the 106 islands which make up the North Jakarta
archipelago are also home to some of Jakarta's wealthiest people
who spend weekends and holidays at their luxury beach houses
there.

According to the National Development and Planning Agency
(Bappenas), four of the 11 subdistricts rated as the "most
underprivileged" in Jakarta lie among the islands. This means
that all four of the subdistricts there, which come under a
single Seribu Islands district, are rated as the poorest.

Of the four, the Kelapa Island subdistrict, the farthest from
Jakarta, has the lowest percentage, or 26.4 percent, of families,
rated as poor.

The Untung Jawa subdistrict, the one nearest Jakarta, is rated
the poorest, with 216 of a total of 276 families living below the
government-determined poverty line.

"It is surprising that the distance between the subdistricts
and Jakarta does not correspond to the percentage of the poor,"
observed Anwar.

The other two subdistricts, Tidung and Panggang, have 343 (36
percent) and 307 (40.3 percent) poor families, respectively.

The most recent study revealed that the average Seribu Islands
housewife has only Rp 7,000 (US$3.33) each month with which to
feed and clothe her family. In contrast, families must spend Rp
7,500 per month simply to finance the schooling of their high
school-age children.

According to Anwar, a family of four is classified as poor if
it spends below Rp 3,000 daily, which is considered the standard
for the minimum physical requirements there.

"This means that the islands' poverty line corresponds to a
daily expenditure of Rp 750 per person," he said, adding that a
total of 1,195 out of 3,223 families on the Seribu Islands spend
less than Rp 3,000 a day.

Extravagance

But there are times when nature is generous.

Monthly incomes of between Rp 300,000 and Rp 400,000 are
possible for most fishermen if mother nature cooperates.

"Once a crew earned Rp 700,000 from a single fishing trip,"
recalled Kasno, deputy to the Seribu Islands district head,
recently.

The money, however, does not last long.

He said when the going is good during harvest time, when the
weather holds, the fishermen can catch as many fish as they want.

Not known as savers, the Seribu Islanders then live it up.

Wedding parties take place all across the islands soon after
the end of the harvest, which is usually followed by the
notorious west monsoon season, Kasno said.

"We call it the wedding of the west monsoon season and the
islanders spend all the money they've earned," he added.

Many islanders travel to the mainland on shopping sprees while
others build permanent houses.

It is indeed difficult to spot the simple, bamboo houses a
visitor expects to see on the islands because being poor in the
Seribu Islands does not translate into living in bamboo huts.

Although more than 300 families living in the Pramuka and
Panggang Islands are labeled as poor, it is hard to pick out any
huts on both islands.

"They have permanent houses but not permanent incomes," said
Anwar.

The islanders' extravagant lifestyle has been blamed for
perpetuating their poverty. Instead of saving some of their
income for times of trouble, they spend it almost as soon as they
earn it.

As a result, many are forced to borrow from loan sharks, which
serves to institutionalize their pennilessness.

Land sale

This vicious cycle of poverty has forced many islanders to
sell their land to mainland Jakartans, and now an increasing
number of islanders live on ever-shrinking plots of land.

The majority of the uninhabited islands are already in the
hands of the nation's tycoons, the city administration or
government institutions.

"One hectare of Tidung Island's total of 12 has been sold to a
mainland Jakartan," declared Zulkifly, a chairman of a youth
organization on the island, during a meeting with North Jakarta
Mayor Suprawito late last month.

He urged the mayor not to allow another land appropriation in
the future due to the limited amount of land owned by locals.

Zulkifly added that he was deeply concerned by the recent
trend of mainland Jakartans acquiring large chunks of land from
the poor islanders.

"You can imagine what will happen if this continues," he told
The Jakarta Post.

IDT

As one of the country's poorer areas, the Seribu Islands are
included in the poverty elimination program which started this
month. The government has allocated a special presidential fund
called the IDT for this purpose.

However, many people are ill-prepared for the campaign.

"Please postpone the program until we are ready to make use of
the presidential funds, otherwise the money will be wasted,"
implored Zulkifly, a Tidung islander.

Asmara has also been chosen as one of the recipients of the Rp
250,000 aid package presented to each person as working capital.

Yet, she claimed "to have no idea" what she would do with the
money.

The idea of IDT funding itself is a good one. However,
extending the IDT funds to combat poverty in the islands may not
be sufficient.

The government's program under the poverty elimination
campaign includes workshops on fisheries such as fishing methods,
aqua culture and post-catch handling methods, which are all aimed
at helping provide the fishermen with access to a permanent
income.

The programs, although necessary, are just the tip of the
iceberg. The lack of public facilities such as regular public
transportation, telecommunications, markets and banks, to name
but a few, should be given first priority in combating the local
poverty.

Mayor Suprawito also stressed the need for the islanders to
alter their extravagant lifestyles and save the money they earn.

Unless they are able to successfully make this lifestyle
adjustment, the Seribu islanders will most likely find it
difficult to extricate themselves from the grip of poverty.