When a noodle vendor speaks up

When a noodle vendor speaks up

JAKARTA (JP): What's the correlation between the threat of
dragging the President before a special session of the House of
Representatives and the fate of a fried noodle seller?

This might seem like a ridiculous question, but the threat has
much to do with the income of Nanang, a 23-year-old native of
Kuningan, West Java, who sells noodles on Jl. Kaliurang in
Yogyakarta.

"I heard on the radio the rupiah's exchange rate against the
dollar is 9,000, even more," Nanang said sadly one recent gloomy
night.

The street was deserted. A perfect time for Nanang to
contemplate. What was on his mind was the list of the latest
price hikes that affect his business of making a decent plate of
noodles with egg and vegetables -- like thousands of other
vendors all over Indonesia.

The price of instant noodles has jumped by Rp 4,000 to Rp
31,000 (US$3.35), he said. Because he usually buys 20 cartons
every week, Nanang's expenditure on this alone has jumped by Rp
80,000 ($8.65). The recent increase in kerosene prices by Rp 100
per liter also forces him to spend an extra Rp 1,000 every day to
keep his small stove burning.

Things are the same for eggs, Nanang lamented. A dozen eggs
used to cost Rp 6,200, now the price has jumped to Rp 7,000.

"These increases just happened at the same time as all of the
fuss over demands that Gus Dur step down," he said.

Nanang heard on the radio what most readers had seen on
television night after night for several weeks: certain national
leaders accusing President Abdurrahman Wahid of failing to meet
public expectations in his first year in office.

Some of these leaders, like economist Syahrir, brought up
matters like the economy and the public feeling that the spirit
of reformasi had been abandoned. While others, such as People's
Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais, threatened to convene a
special session to force the President from office.

This clearly made the international community and major
economic players nervous. The rupiah almost instantaneously took
a nosedive from around Rp 8,500 to Rp 9,300.

The reverberations found their way down to Nanang and his
humble road-side warung.

Despite the price hikes, Nanang says he has not raised the
price of his food, not even by a rupiah. A dish of plain noodles,
fried or boiled, still costs Rp 1,200 (13 U.S. cents), if you
want the special, which means an egg with the noodles, Nanang
will charge you Rp 1,800. Neither did he decrease the size of the
portions, as some tempeh and tofu vendors did.

Nanang also complained about the hike in the price of other
staple foods like sugar, which increased from Rp 2,800 per
kilogram to Rp 3,700 (32.1 percent), as well as coffee and tea.

"Yeah, it's just not right to decrease the amount of sugar (in
the tea or coffee) because the students (who are his loyal
customers) work well into the night and need it for energy," he
said.

Also, if the prices of the food and the drink were increased
and the portions decreased, the cash-strapped students might
prefer to buy instant noodles at the supermarket for between Rp
600 and Rp 900 per pack and cook it at their boardinghouses, said
Nanang a couple of weeks before Ramadhan began. (Now that Idul
Fitri is drawing near, the prices keep on crawling up.)

In Yogyakarta, according to Nanang, there are around 700
warung like his selling noodles, all run by natives of Kuningan,
West Java, and all open 24 hours a day. If each warung is run by
three individuals working in shifts, there are at least 2,100
people earning a living from this business. Nanang himself works
with his brother and two cousins, all between the ages of 20 and
30, the most productive years of their lives.

If you come to Yogyakarta and happen to find yourself near
Gadjah Mada University, you will no doubt see Nanang or his
fellow migrants plying their trade. Spare a thought for the
machinations of the global economy and the cold statistics we
hear and read so much. If you have heard Nanang's practical
understanding of these phenomena, you might wonder why those
politicians do not see the correlation between Indonesia's
economic health and the price of fried noodles.

-- F. Fendry Ponomban