Refleksi : Rahasia kemajuan dan kesejahteraan NKRI http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/lifeandtimes/making-a-life-among-the-dead/386647
July 19, 2010 Report In Jakarta, some people don't have to wait until the afterlife to experience life in a graveyard, day-in, day-out. (JG Photo) Making a Life Among The Dead Jakarta. These Jakartans give new meaning to the phrase living among the dead. When there is no more room beneath the city's overpasses or along its rivers, some of the poorest residents resort to calling the graves of ethnic Chinese - often large mausoleums - home sweet home. The squatters build temporary homes and some haunt the graveyard for years, with little worry of being ejected because officials seem to turn a blind eye to the problem and many of the deceased are rarely, if ever, visited by family members. Nurhayati, also known as Nur, was only asked to vacate the tomb where she had been squatting since 1986 in East Jakarta's Cipinang Besar cemetery two years ago. Nur's family simply picked up and moved to a different tomb in the same cemetery. "They never showed up ever since we started living there, but suddenly, they were there," the 40-year-old said, referring to the family of the deceased. "They got really angry and told us to leave." Her current home is a mausoleum with a roof on 2-by-5 square meters of land. She lives there alone with her four sons after she lost her husband to pneumonia and diabetes in August last year. "I can't afford to rent a house that costs Rp 150,000 a month," she said, while putting her youngest child, a 1-month-old baby, to sleep. "Especially now after my husband died and I have to look after my baby, we all depend on my eldest son to survive from day to day." Nur's oldest son, Ade Trianto, can earn up to Rp 15,000 ($1.70) a day collecting nails from the nearby Ciliwung River. At the grave where the family lives, they have set up a kitchen area, with a stove, plates, a kettle and utensils. The main area has three worn-out mattresses on the floor, next to an old wooden cupboard. To protect them from the elements, layers of plastic sheeting have been attached to the four pillars that hold up the roof. "But when it rains, the water splashes through the open space between the roof and the [plastic] wall," Nur said. "But at least it's free. I don't have to pay a cent." They have no electricity because Nur cannot afford it. Every night, she uses a small kerosene lamp as their light source. Nur's neighbor, Sri, has it a little better. She pays Rp 150,000 a month for the space where they squat. Sri lives in a two-story, semi-permanent structure made of planks on a 2-by-6-square-meter piece of land. Unlike Nur, they have electricity. Iwan, Sri's husband, said he paid "rent" to a guy whom he referred to as "the holder" of the area, but declined to give his name. "It's not his land, but he is like the one with the power here," he said. Some three meters from their makeshift house are two tombs, each with Chinese characters scrawled on them. "I think they died a very long time ago, but the family still comes every Chinese New Year to pray," Sri said. "They don't mind that we live here as long as we take care of the tombs." The mother of one pointed to the tall grass that covered most of the nearby graves and the thick mud, the result of recent rains. "You won't see things like that during the Chinese New Year. We clean up the area so the family [of the dead] is happy, knowing that we really look after the area well," she said. Despite the fact that a number of living families call Cipinang Besar home, Kasino, who works at the cemetery's main office, denied such a thing was happening. "What do you mean there are people living in the cemetery? That's not possible," Kasino told the Jakarta Globe last week. He said that when he started working at the office two months ago, he ordered a clean-up of the cemetery to get rid of the tall grass, and had not heard anything of people living among the graves. Cipinang Besar cemetery stretches over 16 hectares and is divided into Muslim and Buddhist sections. Kasino said it was possible that the area had once served as a camp site for displaced people who had lost their homes during the major floods that hit Jakarta years ago. "But even if that were true, then they must have left the place soon after that because nobody lives in the cemetery today," he said. While Kasino may deny the existence of the cemetery dwellers, Leofold Pasaribu, from the Jakarta Park and Cemetery Agency, knows better. "I'm sure that they know [there are people living in the cemetery]," Leofold said referring to the people at the Cipinang Besar office. "It happens everywhere in Jakarta." Leofold said the budget for taking care of cemeteries in Jakarta had dwindled over the years. "We [used to] assign security officers to each cemetery to prevent squatters from moving in," he said. He said the agency often received complaints from families, especially from the ethnic Chinese. "They don't like it, but say that they can't do much when they visit the graves of their families. Because they are Chinese, they fear that it would spark anger among the squatters there [if they drove them away]," he said. Leofold said blamed the situation on poverty, which he said drove the squatter settlements not only in cemeteries but also beneath overpasses and on riverbanks. However, he added that those who set up camp in cemeteries were depriving the dead of their right to rest in peace and of the families to visit. He said it was possible to address the problem, at least on an individual basis, citing the example of the cleanup of a cemetery that was once home to hundreds of families in Tegal Alur, West Jakarta, in 2009. He said the squatters left the area after the cleanup and returned to their hometowns outside Jakarta. But Tegal Alur is only one area in Greater Jakarta. Leofold said the city was stumped as to how to solve the general problem. "It's the responsibility of all elements to find the best solution for this matter," he said. This, however, won't be easy, particularly when not all the "elements" support the idea of banning people from building homes in cemeteries. South Jakarta's Menteng Pulo cemetery is currently home to about 400 families. More than half of them were "transferred" from another South Jakarta cemetery. "The district head at the time said, 'You all have to leave this site and move to Menteng Pulo cemetery. It's OK, I'll just close my eyes,'?" said Suradi, who relocated to Menteng Pulo in 2008. "And he really did close his eyes, literally, for good. He passed away last year." According to Suradi, the families were moved after the area was purchased by prominent businessman Aburizal Bakrie. Each family received about Rp 1 million to relocate. "No one lived here in Menteng Pulo cemetery before, but people, mostly from outside Jakarta, have kept coming ever since," he said. After paying Rp 500,000 to the "holder" of the area, people are free to decide where to build their homes, Suradi said. He and his family chose a vacant lot within the cemetery grounds to construct a 6-by-11 square-meter semi-permanent house that cost them Rp 5 million. Suradi works as a security guard at a church in South Jakarta, while most of his neighbors pick trash to make ends meet. "We decided to build on a lot that had no tombs just to avoid future problems with the family of the dead," the 60-year-old said. He added that he was prepared to leave the land at any time because he was well aware that the families did not have official permission to build and live there, even if it was the district head who ordered them there. "I know this is illegal," Suradi said. "If the government orders us to, I will leave." He said that he also did not expect to be compensated for the money he had spent on the construction of his house. "I have no right to this land. I should be grateful to have been allowed to live here all this time." Related articles Luxury Burial Plots One Way To Profit From Rising Affluence 9:19 PM 20/06/2010 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
