Yes, I am dreaming of the good old days

Yes, I am dreaming of the good old days

Aida Greenbury, Contributor, Jakarta

I sighed deeply, daydreaming about the good old days. I was not
benignly pondering Siti "Mbak Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana's
virtuous expression while yelling for a return to the era of her
dad, with the twisted irony of her speaking before hundreds of
tired, hungry people doing their best to earn enough for the day.

My mind was actually full of black and white silhouettes of
the 1950s in Indonesia. Yes, it was a time when some people could
only afford to wear rough flour sacks as their everyday clothing
and eat salted rice as their staple diet, but still there were
better opportunities.

In my daydream, an older man in a pair of khaki shorts and a
worn-out T shirt sat before me, telling me of the day he came to
Jakarta with no money in his pocket.

Today's expat suburb of Kemang in South Jakarta was pretty
much jungle at the time, inhabited only by native Jakartans. But
he did eventually get a car, and exchanged it for a piece of land
in the sleepy area.

" I needed to build a house on that land, so I had to find a
job," he told me. "There I was working as an illegal taxi driver
for a while, then as a construction worker for a year. I put my
earnings toward the construction of my house.

His house gradually took shape, piece by piece, getting walls
and doors, but with no locks for the latter until there was
enough money. Then, with help from a Dutch friend, he started
tending hens and selling the eggs door to door.

Although his local neighbors preferred eggs from kampung
chickens, one or two expatriate residents in Kemang were
enthusiastic buyers, recognizing the similarities of the eggs
with those from back home.

"Then my Dutch friends sent me a couple of broiler chickens. I
raised and bred the chickens and started to sell chicken meat as
well. I opened a little shop in my house selling chicks and eggs,
the shop grew and developed to become the well-known expatriate
oriented supermarket you see today."

The story ended there. The gentleman, now a successful
businessman residing in Jakarta, got up from his plump sofa and
asked me to follow him toward the back veranda of his garden
house. My eyes drifted to his horse stable engulfed in the lush
green backdrop, but my mind was elsewhere.

For I love learning about people's success stories, especially
when they start out with almost nothing but have the brains and
strong will to move forward.

Another story I treasure is that of my ex-boss, one of the
country's timber tycoons. I learned that he spent a simple
childhood in a traditional village in Kalimantan, but worked
tirelessly at various manual labor jobs when he was a teenager to
get ahead.

Now, the humble entrepreneur with the kindly Buddha smile
owns a diverse portfolio of businesses, from plywood to pulp
factories, while preserving the nation's green treasures and
paying close attention to the welfare of villagers living close
to the forests he manages.

Both of these men were not born with silver spoons in their
mouths, but were regular folk who saw an opportunity, grabbed it,
worked hard and succeeded. Nowadays, to do the same, it's almost
impossible without serious backing to feed the greedy hands that
promise to clear the way. Over the years, our society has created
a labyrinth of unfair, unhealthy competition, where might and
connections are all conquering.

One of the problems is the lack of copyrights and innovation.

Take a stroll along Jl. Kemang Timur, with its creative bare-
chested guys who love to cover themselves in sawdust. If one
furniture shop makes a particular style of furniture (the design
likely copied from a European magazine), and it proves
successful, within a few days every shop will produce the exact
replica.

The second problem is the bureaucracy and tax issues.
Currently, although it's slowly changing, before you can produce
anything legally, the paperwork, energy and money involved in
processing the nebulous licenses and permits in the bureaucratic
maze eats away at the initial capital.

The last problem is a bit passe: as always, you have to know
the "right" people to be successful in any business.

I have witnessed many occasions where businessmen recognized
the success of a certain small business. The big and powerful
didn't think twice to copy the idea, establishing a similar
business that was naturally stronger and larger. There is no
protection for the small and powerless.

I own up that I partly agree with Tutut's idea, for I want the
really good old days to come back. I am dying to taste and
witness the bittersweet success that hard work yields, that the
much-maligned people of this country are capable of. For they
can reap success when given fair opportunities, instead of just
watching from the sidelines the rich yuppies wallowing in their
bountiful hand-me downs.