The selling of a Friday prayer
The imam (priest) solemnly concluded the Friday prayers at the At Taqwa mosque in Palmerah, Central Jakarta.
"Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh (May the peace, mercy and the blessing of God be upon you)," he said.
The congregation was supposed to softly repeat the same phrase -- praying for peace, mercy, and the blessings of Allah. Instead, a few men in the back row began to shout: "Sale... sale. It's cheap. Three items for Rp 10,000."
As soon as the imam concluded the prayer, the yard and a small lot in front of the mosque turned into bustling market. A considerable number of the weekly congregation went shopping. Mostly the employees of nearby companies, they bought tools, while others purchased T-shirts and toys for their children.
The At Taqwa mosque is not the only place where commerce and religion mix in the city. Many other mosques have become favorite places for vendors to offer their merchandise.
Markets also now regularly spring up around the historic Sunda Kelapa mosque in Central Jakarta and the more modern-looking Pondok Indah mosque in South Jakarta.
The merchandise varies depending on where one worships. At At Taqwa, bunches of five pencils go on sale for Rp 1,000 (10 US cents) and Rp 200,000 ($20) can get the faithful a pair of shoes the vendor claims are made from genuine leather. Surely considering the setting, he wouldn't dare to lie. Various children's toys, meanwhile, are sold for Rp 5,000 each.
Most of the merchandise is made in China. Not far away, other opportunists sell nasi padang (West Sumatra rice), bakso (meat- ball soup) and mie ayam (chicken-flavored noodles) -- probably the only products for sale actually made in Indonesia.
For this article is not written to complain about the contamination of religion with commerce. No, it is about the inability of Indonesians to create for and sell to themselves.
The weekly trade outside the mosques serves as a continuing reminder that this country, with its huge store of natural resources, cannot take a strategic role in international trade.
Instead of producing value-added or technology products, Indonesia can only position itself as a market for foreign commodities. With a population of about 210 million, the country is a huge potential market for foreign producers.
Every month or even every week, the Indonesian people are offered the latest-model cellular phone. These days cell phones are considered obsolete if they are not equipped with interchangeable polyphonic ringtones and a camera.
Middle class and wealthy Indonesians vie with each other to possess the latest gadgets with the most-advanced technology. Meanwhile, the country has produced no notable high-end products of its own for export.
Perhaps the answer to our problems lies in what we do send to other countries. If there is one continuous export from Indonesia, it is the sending of low-skilled, poorly paid workers often for exploitation overseas.
Not even the vendors outside the mosques necessarily sell their own commodities; many of them work for richer businessmen.
"These are not my own assets. I only work for my boss," said Fajar, a 35-year-old vendor from Banyuwangi, East Java, outside a mosque in South Jakarta.
He and many others like him are people alienated from their surroundings. They live in the resource-rich country, but they cannot enjoy a share of its immense natural resources.
They are just like the laborers in the Adidas or Nike shoe factories. Every day they touch shoes they cannot afford to buy.
Every Friday, the imam and the congregation say their prayers, but the lives of the common people change little.
Perhaps they should not pray for peace, mercy, and the blessings of Allah; but for a better government. - Kurniawan Hari