'Silver Town' no longer shining
ASIP A. HASANI, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
Passing silverware shops along the narrow streets of the ancient town of Kota Gede -- in the southeast of downtown Yogyakarta -- will always remind Jumali of his previous silvercraft business, which no longer exists following the monstrous blow of the economic crisis in early 1998.
During the "glory" days, Jumali, now 43, used regularly to knock on the doors of several shops on those streets to deliver their orders of handmade silver jewelry.
Every month, Jumali, who worked with the help of 10 employees, could fulfill orders worth at least Rp 10 million for the Kota Gede shops.
One morning early this week, he was again in the town but carried no jewelry in his hands. Jumali today sells rice, vegetables and other items at the Kota Gede traditional market.
He purchases these from his neighbors in nearby Semoyan village, where 80 percent of its population used to earn a living as traditional silversmiths before the crisis.
Most of their production went to the jewelry shops at Kota Gede, known among local and foreign tourists as Silver Town.
"The gravy train stopped. I can't even afford now to pay my children's school fees," Jumali said.
To keep his children at school, he finally had to sell all three of the motorcycles he once bought during the "good" days.
The local government estimates that some 4,000 families in Kota Gede and surrounding villages, such as Semoyan, Jagalan, Prenggan, Keboan and Tegalgendu, were once involved in the silverware industry during the boom days.
At that time, the main streets of Kota Gede, once home to the ancient Mataram Kingdom, saw at least 40 silverware shops trading.
"Now, about half of the shops are already closed," Sutojo, deputy chief of Yogyakarta Production Cooperative of Silverware Entrepreneurs (KP3Y), told The Jakarta Post early this week.
The crisis, which hit the country in mid-1997, abruptly took the shine off the silvercraft business in Kota Gede.
And the most badly affected party was home industries belonging to the villagers like Jumali, as they could no longer afford to purchase the raw materials.
"Before the crisis, the unprocessed silver cost between Rp 380,000 and Rp 400,000 per kilogram (kg). Then when the crisis started to cripple our economy, the material went up to between Rp 1.5 million and Rp 3 million per kg," Sutojo explained.
The skyrocketing price of the material was an inevitable consequence of the rupiah's depreciation against the U.S. dollar.
The price for other materials used in the silvercraft industry has also soared. Velvet, for example, has tripled from Rp 6,000 to Rp 18,000 per meter, and glue jumped from Rp 8,500 to Rp 40,000 per tin.
According to KP3Y's database, almost half of the silverware production of Kota Gede and its surroundings is shipped for export, with another half for the local market.
"However, domestic sales have been in sharp decline since the crisis," Sutojo said.
The other significant factor that pushed the industry to its currently gloomy state was the significant drop of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia.
"The silverware industry here used to consume at least 200 kg of unprocessed silver per month. Now, we only use some 100 kg," Sutojo went on.
In contrast, overseas orders for Kota Gede silverware were probably not affected by the crisis. Data compiled by the provincial office of trade and industry reveals that the export value has been relatively stable, at US$ 913,234 in 1996, $893,924 (1997), $1.04 million (1998), $ 796,704 (1999) and $1.4 million in 2000.
The figure for this year, however, might be another grim story as in the first seven months the value was only $304,276.
But Sutojo firmly believed that overseas markets are still wide open for Kota Gede silversmiths. However, he acknowledged that the scarcity of capital would remain the most crucial problem for small silverware businesses here.
Like the existing silversmiths, Sutojo also wondered whether Megawati Soekarnoputri's administration could create a better and more stable economic situation to ignite the dying silver industry of Kota Gede.
Locals also worried that the U.S. military attacks against Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks on America would further worsen their business, which had been handed down from generation to generation since the 17th century.