'Spend, God will send': Idul Fitri gives new hope

By Kafil Yamin

BANDUNG (JP): The pomp and excitement of Idul Fitri is nearly over and hardship looms. Pocketbooks are empty, and it is hard to see a guaranteed income in the bleak future.

Lebaran celebrations this year were as gay and exuberant as ever. What was different was the way households were managing their cash flow -- they spent it all.

"Normally, we would still have one or two million rupiah left after Lebaran. This time we spent all our cash. It's really been all-out spending," said Rini Mustariani, a housewife from Cimindi, Bandung.

The cause is obvious: the prices of staple foods and cooking spices have risen two or three fold, and money stocks are depleting.

But, inspired and buoyed by religious fervor, Moslems were unable to tone down their Lebaran festivities just because of a money crisis.

"I spent all the money I had to enliven this sacred day. There is no such a thing as concern on this day of victory," a housewife from Cibeureum, western Bandung, said.

The unshakable spending spirit was evident in marketplaces in all corners of the city. A few days prior to Lebaran, malls and supermarkets were flooded with spenders.

Long lines of shoppers crowded Hero supermarket on Jl. Lingkar Selatan.

"It took me half an hour to reach the cashier because the line was so long," a shopper said. And the supermarket had to close later than usual.

Setiarna, sales manager of Bandung Hero supermarket, said sales were considerably higher than last year.

"It's four days before Idul Fitri but all our stuff has almost sold out," he said.

Sales were also booming at Matahari supermarkets.

"It seems to me that people's purchasing power is still strong. If you looked at those lines of shoppers, you wouldn't believe we were going through an economic catastrophe," a public relations worker said.

But these were middle-class experiences.

In the traditional markets where the low-income group shop, it was a very different story. Here, sales were lackluster.

Pasar Baru is usually packed during the Lebaran season, but this year there was plenty of room to wander around and lots of parking spaces.

"It's much quieter around here," said Haji Daud, 48, a cloth seller at Cicalengka traditional market. "Fewer people come. Many of them buy just a few items of poorer quality clothing, that means lower revenue."

But the unusual quiet of the "conventional" marketplaces did not mean self-restraint in Lebaran shopping.

"The low-income group is shopping, but they are doing it in the alternative markets where prices are more affordable," Erna Ermawati, a senior researcher at Akatiga social research center told the Post.

It appears to be so. While the conventional markets were deserted, it was all bustle and go at the alternative markets. At Cibadak, for example, a pair of medium quality jeans sells for Rp 5,000 (50 U.S. cents).

All kinds of clothing, bags and accessories are sold here at competitive prices.

"We set our prices from about Rp 5,000 to Rp 15,000," a vendor said.

Daud said he had been hoping for big profit margins during Idul Fitri to compensate for plunging sales over the past few months.

"But my hopes were dashed."

Despite a steep drop in income, however, he celebrated Lebaran with as much of a splash as ever.

His philosophy is that when it comes to religious proceedings there is always a way to deal with challenges.

Daud did his Lebaran shopping at an alternative market so that he could celebrate as he had always done.

"Spend, God will send," he said, quoting a British saying.

And so it was.

Idul Fitri festivities in villages were cheerful affairs. Food was abundant, families were reunited and children were happy.

"There was nothing lacking," Daud added.

One of the most striking things about this year's Idul Fitri is the thinner Lebaran flowback traffic.

Many of those who returned home for Idul Fitri will not return because they no longer have jobs.

"I will not be going back to Jakarta," said 32-year-old Dadang who has worked for a clothing factory in Tangerang for five years.

"I was not fired. But my boss told me I don't have to go to work after Lebaran because there is no work to do. The company will halt its operations."

He plans to take part in a government-sponsored labor- intensive project in Bandung instead.

There he will join the other 104,000 unemployed in the Bandung administrative area who will clean up the city and the river, cut down trees and lay pipes, all for Rp 6,500 per day.

"I have lost jobs several times. But I've never lost hope," he said, chewing a ranginang, a special Lebaran cracker.