July 14, 1999
Kedung Journal
IN RURAL INDONESIA, POLITICS IS ABOUT FOOD PRICES
By Seth Mydans
KEDUNG, Indonesia -- The farther the road goes, the more beautiful
the villages become, and the more desperately poor. Deep in the
countryside, with a hint of ocean in the air, green rice fields stand
silent except for the swish of a breeze.
With the rice mostly planted and
the next harvest months away,
the hungry people here fly kites
through the golden afternoons and
sometimes under the stars at
night.
Remote as it seems, this tiny
village is less than 30 miles from
Jakarta, the capital. Yet most of
the people who work here
surrounded by coconut palms and
mango trees say they have never
been to the big city.
Yes, they have watched, on
communal television sets, the
upheavals that are transforming
their country. They voted with
great enthusiasm on June 7 in the
national election in hope of a
better life. But they seemed
relieved, one recent afternoon,
that most of the excitement of the
last year had passed them by.
"It's secure here," said Siti, a
farmer who guesses her age at
about 40. "No rumors. No reform."
Reform -- or "reformasi" -- is the battle cry of the demonstrators
who
helped bring down President Suharto a year ago and who want to
transform their nation into a free and democratic society.
To Mrs. Siti and others here in the fields it is a strange, foreign-sounding
word that may have something to do with the harshness of their lives
since
the Asian economic crisis hit Indonesia two years ago.
Farmers like these make up the huge majority of Indonesia's population
of
more than 200 million, and a huge majority of its electorate. Yet
most of
the country's hot political issues -- corruption, democracy, the role
of the
military -- are little more than words for many of them.
In a country where nearly half of the population is estimated to live
in
poverty, national politics is not very complicated. It is all about
the prices of
rice and cooking oil.
Asked what "reformasi" meant to them, many villagers here and elsewhere
said it meant rising prices, even though the currency crashed and
prices
rose well before Suharto resigned in May 1998.
Many others did not even offer a guess.
"I just want prices to go down," said Amnah, a farmer.
Mrs. Siti said she was relieved that there was no reform here in her
village,
northwest of Jakarta. But when asked what that meant, she deferred
to a
young man named Rusman, who has enough education to repair
motorcycles at the edge of the fields here.
"No, I don't know either," Rusman said. "I might know someone who
does,
but he's praying right now."
That man is Suhaimi, an elderly carpenter who has made the pilgrimage
to
Mecca and who chooses his words with care. Seating himself slowly
in the
shade of his workshop, Suhaimi said he thought he had the answer.
"It is the same as paceklik," he said. That is a word (pronounced
pah-che-KLIK) that farmers use to describe a period of extremely bad
harvests.
A friend explained, "If you don't have rice you eat corn and if you
don't
have corn, you eat cassava, and if you don't have cassava to eat,
it's
paceklik."
Suhaimi, 67, managed to make his pilgrimage in 1996, just before the
economic crisis hit. Now, he said, it would be much too expensive.
"Yes, reform has had a big impact," he said. "Before, business was
a lot
smoother. Now everything is expensive."
His neighbor, Rusli, was an electrician in Jakarta before the economic
crisis hit. Now, like millions of Indonesians, he has lost his work
and
returned to his home village, where he sometimes helps in the fields
but
mostly sits indoors.
OPTIONAL TRIM
"Oh, it's hard," he said, when asked how he gets by. "It's hard even
to buy
a pack of cigarettes."
If he had to choose between a bowl of rice and a pack of cigarettes?
Rusli
scratched the back of his head for a long time. "I guess it would
be the
cigarettes," he said, "if I had the money."
END OPTIONAL TRIM
Though they may know little about "reformasi," the farmers are right
in
putting the economy at the center of their country's political upheavals.
Without the anger aroused by the economic crisis, Suharto would surely
have ridden out the political challenge against him last year. The
country's
foundering economy -- rarely mentioned in the recent election campaign
--
presents the greatest challenge to a new government.
Rather than any revolutionary future, many farmers here are wishing
for a
return to the recent past, when the economy was booming and prices
were
low.
"I hope the new government will bring the situation back to the way
it was
before," said Yakub, 25, a jobless driver who now helps his brother
in the
fields. "Before the changes, my family could afford to buy 20 kilograms
of
rice a week. Now we can hardly afford to buy 10."
Three of his seven family members have embarked on strict Muslim fasts,
he said, more as a measure of frugality than religion.
"During Suharto's time we were doing OK," he said. "We didn't know
about his dark side, or his bright side either. But now that he's
gone we
know that prices are high."
This is Megawati country -- solid red, the electoral color of Megawati
Sukarnoputri. She is the presidential candidate who bears the hopes
of
most people who want change, from those who want democracy to those
who want lower prices.
Farmers here say they flew her red banner from their plows, like kites.
A victory for Mrs. Megawati would mean an overturning of the old order
that has clung to office since Suharto stepped down. But most of the
people here, whose votes for her could help change the course of the
country, have little idea who she is or what she might do in office.
"Now it's reform time," said a farmer named Sariun, who said he was
about 50. "But if Megawati wins, things are going to get better. The
farmers are just waiting for Megawati to become president."
IN RURAL INDONESIA, POLITICS IS ABOUT FOOD PRICES
Yohanes Sulaiman, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI Wed, 14 Jul 1999 12:05:08 -0700
