Yes, Sir. I Do Still Have So Much To Learn

An article from my professor. Never been taught by him but really would like to.

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Third Article!

Against the Current Norm: Moving to Jakarta

The Jakarta Post | Sat, 09/03/2011 3:00 PM | Opinion

The return of about 7 million holiday makers to Jakarta will be followed by a surge in the number of new migrants. Post-Idul Fitri 2010, around 60,000 new migrants came to Jakarta, down from 69,554 in 2009, the reduction due to firm action by the city administration.

Alongside Operasi Yustisi Kependudukan (OYK), a program of identity-card checks during the post-Idul Fitri period, the Jakarta government has also appealed to people to reconsider moving to the city. This is particularly aimed at low-skilled people, most of the city ads are designed to warn them that finding jobs in Jakarta is not as easy as it may seem.

Jakarta requires people to have skills and restricts those who are considered low-skilled. But if everyone has the right to move and seek a better living, then why should coming to Jakarta be banned? One possible answer is that the Jakarta government is trying to reduce the myriad of social problems resulting from overpopulation.

The city has a plan to limit its population to only 12 million by 2030. Statistics show that in 2010, the registered population numbered 8.52 million, whilst the latest national census put Jakarta’s actual population at 9.59 million. The annual growth of 1.4 percent per year is mostly caused by migration rather than natural growth. Assuming that growth is stable each year, the city’s bid to limit the population to only 12 million in 2030 will be unachievable.

This reality has forced the local government to seriously control the population through family planning programs, ID card checks and a policy of transmigration. From 2005 to 2010, Jakarta relocated 2,163 people, or 542 households, to North Sumatera, Bengkulu, South Kalimantan and Southeast Sulawesi.

Quite apart from the current corruption case plaguing the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry regarding alleged bribery in the Manokwari resettlement project in West Papua, transmigration programs have resulted in many problems mainly due to poor conditions in the settlement areas.

The worst example was in the 1970s when migrant settlers, mainly young farmers from Java, were forced to move to Kalimantan, but this island’s soil is mainly peat moss which is not suitable for rice farming. The transmigration program only succeeded in moving poverty from one place to another.

The program has also led to some dreadful disputes and ethnic conflicts between migrants and indigenous citizens that often derived from socioeconomic tensions. In the past the policy was seen as “Javanization” or“Islamization”, but this perception has lessened with increased decentralization.

Is it still appropriate for Indonesia to continue this program?

Rapid urbanization and the pursuit of better living standards mean that for many people, lacking full information, Jakarta is the only place that can provide them with what they need.

Better infrastructure, for example the development of mass rapid transportation and toll-roads, certainly leads to improvements in economic and social activity but it may result in an urban development trap and could backfire on Jakarta in the long run. As such the development is tantamount to a pull factor for more people to come rather than encouraging people to leave.

Many suggest that leaving Jakarta requires some form of incentive. The principle that people respond to incentives is human nature. Thus creating incentives in other places is much more rational than forcing people to move from Jakarta, unless authoritarian rule is to be restored.

Rather than putting a metaphorical gun to people’s heads, focusing on developing an attractive economic climate in sparsely populated, marginal areas of Indonesia would be a better solution to this tangled web of problems.

Focusing on this regional development will not only lead to qualified people moving voluntarily from Jakarta but also to the empowerment of local citizens in these areas. The paradigm of transmigration must be shifted from forcing the poor to move to attracting educated people to migrate voluntarily.

Most graduates of major universities in Indonesia intend to work in Jakarta and aspiring entrepreneurs will wish to do the same since the city still provides the largest market. The choice of where to locate therefore becomes a self fulfilling prophecy about finding the best career prospects.

The government cannot rely solely on the benevolent actions of philanthropy to fill the gap between Jakarta and the rest of the country. It needs to create other economic activity centers away from Jakarta.

If diverse economic centers do come to pass, it will be amusing to imagine our children going against the current norm by making annual visits to their parents in Jakarta every time Idul Fitri comes around.

The writer is a School of Economics student at the University of Indonesia, Depok, West Java.

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Why Do We Have to Go to Town?

Berdansa, senja semakin gila
Setiap orang, ingin tinggal di kota~
Cari mencari, mengumpulkan rejeki
Begitu banyak, untuk sesuap nasi~
...

(“Senja Menggila”, performed by White Shoes And The Couples Company)

Yesterday, I and few of my friends helped our faculty to conduct a seminar event by being a Liaison Officer team. We were divided based on our each job desk. When the event started, I was told to be a MOU and gift deliverer between the faculty and the institution that had a partnership with the faculty. What I want to address here is not about the event and my job desk, but it is simply about a small part of a conversation that happened during the event between me and a soundman.

At that moment, I was told to stand by from the right side of backstage. When the preparation started, I decided to get into the backstage and thus together with a soundman who already prepared inside. I guessed that he was a soundman from a rental sound system studio who had a duty to supervise the work of microphone at that time. My guess was right after he told me that he had to supervise the microphone during the event. Due to the small space and the cool temperature that we had in the backstage, sometimes we had a conversation and he started with a conventional phrase of question by asking me about my ethnic. I said that I am inherited by Sundanese, Javanese, and Malay ethnics. Of all the sudden time, his mimic was looked very confused. It may be cause of his thought that I have no clear descent. Then I tried to politely explain that my mother is a Sundanese, my father is a Javanese, and I was born in Pontianak where I grew up in a Malay people environment there. So, I concluded and told him “campur-campur” (a kind of mixture ethnics).

Every time I heard he spoke, I realized that he might not come from Java region. So I returned to ask the same conventional question to him about his ethnic. He answered that he came from Jakarta, West Jakarta at a precise. By hearing his accent, I did not believe him and I thought that he lied to me so I made sure and told him that his accent was a very bold of Sumatra’s accent. And this was completely right after he finally admitted that he has Batak as his ethnic and he just moved out from Medan since four months ago.

I was getting more curious after his lying and asked him why he decided to move to Jakarta from Medan without a blaming sound. He answered innocently that he wanted to live better by looking for job in Jakarta.

(This was conducted in Bahasa actually)
“Were you had no opportunity in Medan?”
“Nope, I had a job before, as a factory labor in a mining company there.”
“Really? As I heard, Medan is an important city in Sumatera and it has a better economy than the other cities in Indonesia due to the support of its mining and plantation outputs. So, you might be a good merit of its economic contribution there.”
“Hahaha I wished so. But yea, I was graduated from plantation school there. Then my destiny led me to the mining sector, so I decided to move to Jakarta.”
“Are you working in plantation sector right now in Jakarta?”
“Nope, as you can see that I am working for a sound system studio now. It is very different from what I expected to.”
“Yea, you are so true. I was just thinking that there is no plantation area in Jakarta, unless the ones outside, maybe it is inside West Java area. Do you know Bogor, Lembang, and Cianjur?”
“Yea, I know Bogor and Cianjur but not with Lembang. Where is it?”
“That is in the north of Bandung. You should go there one day, they have lots of beautiful plantation.”
“Right now, I do not want to work in plantation area, they have no prospect.”
“I did not suggest you to work in plantation area, I have no right. I am just saying that maybe you can go to a vacation there, they have a beautiful view. Anyway, sometimes I wanted to have a plantation and a farm you know, I think they are awesome. That is why, I am in an addiction right now to play a computer game haha. The name of its game is Harvest Moon, it is an old game since I was in elementary but I started to play again right now. The goal of the game is you have to run a plantation area until it has a 100 percent of utilization; farming, breeding, mining, and also socializing with people surrounding the area.”
“Hahaha, is it a distraction of Jakarta’s condition?”
“Yea, you are right, a little bit of distraction! Anyway, was it your decision to move here or were there any forces from your parents and family?”
“No, it was my own decision, there were no forces from my family. I am an oldest son, so I have to be independent.”
“Ah ya I see, but I was just thinking that Batak has its matriarchy tradition.”
“What is that?”
“That the burden is in the daughter’s hand. A reverse of Minang tradition, that every son has to be responsible to the family’s burden. No wonder that there is a term about “anak rantau” for Minang culture.”
“Oh ya, I understand.”
“Anyway, when you decided to move to Jakarta, you had an acquaintance here, right?”
“No, I was just supported by my dauntless (laughing).”
“Really? So, where did you live after you arrived here from Medan?”
“I lived first in my friend’s house. Then I started to look for job, it was a tough moment for me honestly. Until now I had a job and I rented a house sharing with my other friends.”
“Do you feel better than before right now?”
“Yea, I feel better, at least better than I was in Medan. I could buy things with my own salary and the important one, I could send money to my parents there every month.”
“It is very noble indeed! Have you ever thought that one day you will come back to Medan?”
“Yea, I wanted to but not now.”

That was the end of the conversation because I had to do my job desk at that time. But at one time, I suddenly remembered about a discussion in my first Regional Economics lecture few months ago. The discussion was addressed by my lecturer and the big question is “Why do we choose Regional Economics class?”.

The goal of the discussion was only to guide my lecturer so that he could provide what we expected to about the class. This was a simple moment but I found a deep meaning inside. It was started by my friend, Puji Lestari Anugerah, a clever and a low-profile student of Economics. She came from one region in West Java, named Garut. She is a Sundanese with a bold accent.

After introducing our name and concentration, we were ought to answer that big question one by one. Every student had their turns and then there was a time for Uji—her nickname, to answer the question. My heart was trembling when I heard her spontaneous answer. It sounded idealistic actually but looking after dozens of answer from each student in the class which mostly classic, her answer was an inspiring one.

“Okay, Puji. What took you to this class?”
“I choose this class because I wanted to come back to Garut, work there, and develop its resources.”

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Human Capital vs Working Capital

Let me begin with the fact from Labor Force Situation in Indonesia by Badan Pusat Statistik per February 2009, based on the total number of young people between the ages of 15-24 years old in Indonesia (each country has different point of view to define the meaning of youth), the number of labor force between those ages is 21,066,360 people. Then, based on this economically active number population, the 4,726,153 are unemployed. This number shows us that more than 51% of the unemployment in Indonesia consists of young people. According to the improvement and the use of technology in most companies today, there will be more declining occupations which are likely to happen in the future. So, the good news—we have a lot of human capital and will have it more in the future.

In some rural areas, the access to study is still difficult to be reached, once they can achieve the access of it, they should face the high cost of enrolling school, and once they finally enter the school, they cannot imply what are the things that have been learned after finishing the school period. The problem of unemployment is partly attributable to the fact that education systems often offer curricula that are not related to the world of work. Big portion of students admit that most of their times are wasted in “studying” something rather than “learning” something. Thus, what is the insight of great opportunity in having a lot of human capital which are available to be absorbed if it is not followed by the high number of well-prepared young people due to the fact that they are less educated about the world of work? So, the bad news—we still have less of working capital.

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