Urbanites preparing the trip home for Idul Fitri holidays
Urbanites preparing the trip home for Idul Fitri holidays
By Johannes Simbolon
JAKARTA (JP): Mudik again! In a torrent, tens of millions of
people from across the country and overseas will simultaneously
pour into Java to celebrate Idul Fitri with their families.
Java, the world's most populous island with 107.6 million
people, will become more packed than usual.
Many other ethnic groups have adopted the home-bound mudik
tradition, but it wouldn't be as dramatic without the 30-million
Javanese, who dominate the Indonesian population.
Soon millions of people will leave Jakarta, like refugees
fleeing a war. Women and children will have to hustle and jostle
for seats on buses and trains, being drag through the windows by
their men. Many people won't get home. They will be killed in
traffic accidents.
Preparation for these happy and unhappy events is now
underway.
Suminah from Surabaya, East Java, washes clothes for many
households on Jl. Mampang Prapatan in South Jakarta. She is now
busy soliciting a loan from area residents by offering her
Polytron tape player as collateral.
"I bought this tape player half a year ago for Rp 500,000
(US$216). Please, lend me Rp 300,000. If I can't pay my debt, the
tape player is yours, Om (sir)," she begged a couple weeks ago.
Many people are ready to mortgage their belongings to gather
with their families. Pawnshops record a 50 percent increase in
turnover each year before Idul Fitri holidays, said Kusprijono,
head of the Jatinegara pawnshop in East Jakarta.
"Our turnover has risen by 15 percent although Idul Fitri is
still some weeks ahead," he said.
Muliadi, a satay seller from Surakarta, Central Java is lucky
to have befriended a jamu street-trader named Soleh from Cirebon
in West Java. As in the previous years, the 15,000 medicine
traders in Greater Jakarta will be given free bus tickets as a
bonus by the Mustika Ratu and Sido Muncul jamu companies. Soleh
has promised to get Muliadi a ticket.
"My family and I have returned home three times on free jamu
tickets," said Muliadi.
Benny Hareguna, the national sales manager of the Jagaraga
division of jamu maker PT Mustika Ratu, said the free tickets
were the company's way of showing its appreciation.
"We share profits with those who have also contributed to the
company's success," he said.
This year, Mustika Ratu and Sido Muncul will respectively
provide 40 and 120 buses to transport their traders home. They
will leave from Central Jakarta, Tangerang, Bekasi, Cilegon,
Serang and Bogor. According to some jamu traders, the number is
more than enough.
"Last year there were less buses, but some of the buses were
still half empty," recalled Soleh.
Traffic dystopia
Between three and four million people will leave Greater
Jakarta for their home villages in Central and East Java by
train, bus, plane and car. Most take the train and buses.
Unfortunately, some will end up killed in street accidents.
Each year, while people happily prepare for their Idul Fitri
celebrations, the West Java administration prepares 150 graves
for homebound travelers killed in traffic accidents.
The police, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of
Public Works and the state-owned toll road company Jasa Marga
have just completed a week-long joint survey of the routes to
ensure traffic is not horrendous.
Half a million maps -- which clearly show danger areas, flood-
prone areas, how to escape traffic jams -- have been printed and
will be distributed at toll gates, bus terminals and petrol
stations to drivers.
The exodus will culminate seven days before Idul Fitri.
Travelers will trickle back to Jakarta and other big towns 10
days after the holiday.
At the peak, buses will only be allowed to travel on the north
coast route, and trucks and trailers on the longer south coast
route. Motorists are free to take either route.
J.A. Barata, the spokesman for the Directorate of Land
Transportation, advises motorists to take the south route.
"The south coast route will entertain them with more beautiful
views than in the north. They will be saved from possible traffic
jams on the packed north coast route," he promised.
Trucks and trailers were banned from the north route in 1992,
after an overturned trailer caused a 36-hour traffic jam
throughout Java in 1991.
"We don't want that to happen again," said Barata.
Barata added that the government will also build temporary
posts along the roads for people to take a rest, ask for
information, take medication or drink free coffee.
Tens of thousands of police will attempt to regulate the
traffic.
Last year, the police service was satisfactory, according Sri
Hadianto, a worker of a private firm in Pulo Gadung, East
Jakarta.
"I saw there were police officers every 100 meters, especially
in Central Java. They were all helpful. Policemen were rare in
West Java, from Jakarta to Cirebon," he recalled. Hadianto drives
home every year.
Bus companies were also happy last year because none of the
police stopped their buses to extort the usual pungli bribe from
the drivers.
"We thank the police because they didn't demand illegal money
during last year's mudik," said Aip Syarifuddin, chief of the
City Land Transportation Agency.
"Officials at bus terminals still coerced various levies from
the bus drivers, though," he added.
Buses
The state railway company Perumka and all public bus companies
have prepared for big push.
Perumka's trains will be able to carry between 140,000 and
175,000 people a day from Greater Jakarta.
The bus companies will deploy 49,000 buses, enough to carry
about five million people.
The bus companies are upset that government regulations
preventing them from profiting from mudik.
The government has permitted them to only raise the fares by
up to 25 percent, but will allow them to cram 10 percent more
passengers into the buses. The bus firms claim the additional
income from the fare hike won't cover the loss they will suffer
from having empty buses return to Jakarta.
"Honestly speaking, we never profit during mudik," said
Rusdianto, Jakarta's chief representative of the Timbul Jaya bus
company.
Aip said homebound travelers are willing to pay higher bus
fares, provided that they can enjoy the trip.
Each year, he said, many factory workers secretly charter
buses from Central and East Java, although their fares are higher
than permitted by the government. Their preference for chartered
buses is understandable because the buses will pick them up at
their factories. If they travel on regular buses, they must first
get into bus terminals by buses, for which they pay some fares,
he added.
The bus firms refuse public charters in case the government
accuses them of breaking the fee ceiling.
"Under the charter scheme, the fare is based on the
negotiation between the passengers and bus owners, not the
government regulations. We want the government to allow us to
carry people under the charter scheme," said Aip.