Second class residents in their own hometown

Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 06/02/2010 11:11 AM

Jakarta’s native Betawi people seem to have taken a backseat amid the stampede of residents racing to steer the city’s economic wheels.

“When I was little, this city’s economy was run by the native people, most of whom worked as traders,” Aseni, a 42-year-old Betawi native told The Jakarta Post recently.

He said most of them were related, which conjured a strong sense of family bonding during his childhood.

“Unlike nowadays, where people have become individualistic and most of the time we don’t even know our own neighbor,” he said.

Jakarta Population and Civil Registration Agency data reveals that, of 7.5 million residents in 2007, only 27.36 percent were Betawi.

The agency recorded most Betawi people worked in the informal sector as motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers, land middlemen or street vendors.

“Most of us [Betawi natives] are left behind in terms of education and economy,” he said.

Due to the lack of employment opportunities, he added, coupled with poor levels of education, some of his former Betawi neighbors had sold their homes in Jakarta and moved to satellite cities like Depok for a lower cost of living.

Another Betawi native, Roiyah, 70, shared a similar view on the poor competitiveness of the locals.

“Most of the newcomers have better jobs and standards of living compared to native Betawi,” she said.

“But not all of us. There are some who are successful,” she said, pointing out Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo as a “good” Betawi breed.

The influx of newcomers, however, is not always seen as a threat to the natives.

Zayadi, 47, saw positive side of Jakarta being a melting pot of various ethnic groups.

“There are many things that we can learn from the newcomers,” he said.

He recalled a meeting with a person from Padang, West Sumatra, who encouraged him to attend a training class that helped him get a job at a private company for almost 10 years.

“Since then, he and I have been like brothers,” he said, adding if they kept themselves exclusive they would never progress.

Betawi historian from University of Indonesia JJ Rizal said problems faced by Betawi have not much changed since colonial era.

“They are second-class citizens in their own land.

“You can see from how Betawi people live in the villages behind luxurious houses of newcomers, their [living] condition is exactly the same since the colonial era,” he told the Post.