Villagers demand openness from Safari Ramadhan

By Ainur R. Sophiaan

PATI, Central Java (JP): Openness and development funding are primary concerns of people at the grassroots level, if discussions between Minister of Information Harmoko and villagers during his recent travels across Java are anything to go by.

Seventy percent of the villagers Harmoko met during his Safari Ramadhan -- his annual trip during the fasting month -- were living in remote areas, and they were very outspoken in many of their demands.

Aulia Rachman, deputy secretary-general of the ruling political grouping Golkar, accompanied the minister on the Jan. 12-20 trip to dozens of villages in West, Central and East Java. Harmoko is also chairman of Golkar.

Aulia told The Jakarta Post that people in the remote areas have become more critical and well informed these days. When they ask questions, they want to be answered promptly and correctly, he said.

"People at the grassroots level are catching up. As soon as one of their demands is met, they are ready with a new one," Aulia said after observing several dialogs between the minister and villagers.

"In other words, demands are emerging in every stage of development," said the former chairman of the Indonesian National Youth Committee, a youth organization affiliated to Golkar.

The government should better respond to the development, he said. "People in the rural areas will be impressed if addressed in an open and fair manner," he said, adding that this was the style of communication more people were clamoring for now.

Abu Hasan Sazili, the deputy chairman of House Commission I for information who joined the Ramadhan tour this year, said he was impressed by how open people were and how they demanded openness in return.

"(The villagers) touched on every subject candidly. They were also eager to reveal their thoughts and express demands," he said. "This open attitude indicates progress in social communication, political communication, to be precise."

The open attitude was obvious in Kastaman, a high school dropout who joined POKMAS, a grassroots organization in the relatively isolated village of Mayong, Mayong district, Jepara regency, Central Java.

He told Harmoko that he and his group had received Rp 2 million (US$845) in funding from the government's poverty alleviation program to start a fishpond business.

After one year, the group netted Rp 1.5 million in profit in each of the four fish harvests a year. "More funding should be made accessible to small traders," he told Harmoko.

Reproach

The open attitude was also demonstrated by Sumirah, a woman who has toiled for 6 years in the largest cigarette factory in Central Java, PT Djarum Kudus. She bluntly said that in all the years she has worked in the factory, she has never met the owner.

Working alongside 10,000 others in the factory, Sumirah makes Rp 4,025 a day. "I hope you can help change our fate," the Kudus resident said.

Abshori, a student at the As Syafiiyah pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Proto village, in the Kedungwimo district of Pekalongan regency, Central Java, was another case.

He told the ministers he was worried about the possibility of not finding a job when he leaves school. "I hope the government will find a more open and fair procedure for recruiting civil servants," he said. "The existing procedure confuses me."

Harmoko was evidently pleased with the villagers' openness. "Once in a while, (the villagers' statements) felt like a reproach to me. But, that's the way the common people are," he said.

He reiterated that poor communication was one of the obstacles facing development programs. Few relations were formed between people and officials. The Safari Ramadhan program is, therefore, necessary, he argued.

"I realize that people are now more critical and, at times, make unreasonable demands. It's my job to collect suggestions and information from the grass roots. I will then take their grievances to the relevant officials," he said.

Aulia agreed. "With the approaching globalization, officials should change their attitudes. They should stop thinking they are all knowing, all powerful," he said. "Facts have shown that people at the grassroots always speak from the heart, they are honest, open and no longer bashful."

The Safari Ramadhan trips, which Harmoko started in 1983, are purported to be fact finding excursions to determine the problems and difficulties experienced by people in various development programs.

The safari program aims to cultivate communication between the public and those in authority, in this case Harmoko; which is why open discussions are the feature of the trip.

However, there has been criticism from all directions claiming that the discussions have developed into political gatherings, given that Harmoko is the current chairman of Golkar.