Rice imperialism comes back to haunt RI, causes famine

Rice imperialism comes back to haunt RI, causes famine

A'an Suryana, Jakarta

Surya, an Indonesian exchange student, drags his feet into his room in a student dormitory. He has just returned from a McDonald's outlet, some 30 minutes walk from the dormitory, located in the compound of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Surya bought the Mac as a substitute for his usual rice- based meal, as all university canteens were now closed. Remember, this is Sunday.

Carrying the McDonald's meal -- a big chicken Mac, a cup of Coke and a small pack of French fries -- he opens the door and turns on the television. It is 6:30 p.m. and the 23-year-old student begins enjoy the English Premiere Soccer game. Starving, he quickly eats the Big Mac while his eyes are glued to the set. He gobbles up the whole Mac.

As the soccer match winds up, he goes to bed and starts to close his eyes. An hour goes by. Another half hour passes by.

"Why can't I fall a sleep?," said Surya, who just arrived in Singapore a day ago. He turns on his left side and right, but still can't sleep.

Later on, he is aware that the problem is not in his mind, but rather his stomach. He has not eaten rice the whole day. It explains why he is still famished although he has eaten a big Mac and French fries. He desperately needs rice, his staple. For him, the big Mac is merely a side dish.

What Surya is experiencing is common back home in Indonesia. Rice has been the country's staple food for years. People have depended heavily on rice. No matter how much bread or meat people eat, they say they haven't had breakfast, lunch or dinner, unless rice was on the menu.

The dependence on rice does not pose a problem when the supply is adequate. But, the problem will arise when the supply is low, something like what happened to Surya. Of course, in the absence of rice, Surya could adjust to other food available, but certainly it would take some time and he would have to go through a lot of suffering before finally adjusting to the new food.

Dependence on rice in Indonesia has a long history. Earlier, people in the various regions had various staples. In East Nusa Tenggara, the majority of people used to eat corn, while people in Papua and Maluku used to eat sago. Javanese eat rice, but in several places like Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta, people used to eat tiwul (food processed from cassava) as their staple.

The role of rice, as a staple food, became prominent nationwide after Soeharto took power from former president Sukarno in 1966. Aware that food security was very important to sustain the life of his regime, president Soeharto made a food security program his top priority. Soeharto knew very well the old slogan: "Give people circus and bread, and they will not revolt."

Soeharto mobilized all resources to achieve food self- sufficiency, which finally materialized in the 1980s. He was even awarded a UN prize after Indonesia achieved rice self-sufficiency in 1984.

Unfortunately, the emphasis on achieving rice self-sufficiency has seen a decline in the existence of other staple food in the country and further enhanced people's dependence on rice.

As the demand for rice grew due to an increase in the population, the government encouraged the opening of new paddy fields, especially in outer Java island. The program ran well, as it was supported by the transmigration program. All efforts were focused on the planting of paddy, at the expense of other crops, including corn, sago and tubers. People began to abandon food other than rice.

The culture of eating rice, which was brought by Javanese transmigrants, later became deeply entrenched in the culture of outer Java. It was compounded by the erroneous belief that eating rice is much more prestigious than eating sago, corn or cassava. According to these people, eating rice enhances the social status.

As a result, many families outside Java changed their diet, and they later made rice their staple food. The statistics are convincing. Earlier in Papua, almost all people in the easternmost province ate sago. But, according to a study in 1998, only 10 percent of the Papuan population ate sago that year, 20 percent ate tubers and the remaining 70 percent ate rice (Kompas, Oct. 17, 1998).

The change in diet has certainly made people dependent on rice and this has not only happened in Papua. At the height of the much touted rice self-sufficiency policy in the 1990s, rice became the staple food of almost all regions in the country.

The dependability on rice has not only caused deprivation as illustrated in Surya's case. Rice has become a political issue. People will not grumble when the price of cassava or corn go up and down, but people will criticize the government if the price of rice increases dramatically. National stability is threatened if the supply of rice runs low in the country.

In order to avoid a food crisis, the government and people have to fight to diversify eating habits. A concerted campaign has to take place to encourage people to diversify food and not to rely on rice as the only staple. The government should encourage people in the regions to return to their old habit of eating tubers or cassava that easily grow in the regions and not insist that the farmers in the area grow rice.

The recent case in East Nusa Tenggara, where the rice crisis is imminent due to prolonged drought, explains how dependence on rice has had an adverse effect in the region.

The region, which earlier saw corn as its staple food, is said to be facing a food crisis because the supply of rice has been short due to the prolonged drought and there is a lack of diet options, with rice as the only staple. This would not have happened if the regions had not heavily depended on rice. And, on a smaller scale, this surely applies to Surya too.

The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.