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