Living in the Kampungs
FORUM. Vol.7. ▌
Living in the Kampungs: A Firsthand Account of Experiences in Jakarta’s
Kampungs
Antony Sihombing
University of Indonesia, Indonesia; The University of Melbourne, Australia
Keywords: Kampungs, Kota, Jakarta
Abstract
In this paper I describe my experiences of living in five different kampungs in Jakarta, through a narrative of my lived
experiences there. This use of a chronological order incidentally also describes how I climbed the socio-economic ladder from
the first poor kampung in Menteng Atas to the middle class kampung Pondok Labu, and how I related to those around me in
kampungs at different times, places, and stages. The account also suggests, by implication, the ways that others have risen
socio-economically through the ‘ladder’ of the kampungs. I also relate my experiences of surprise and shock when I first lived
in a kampung, through my processes of adaptation for living in different kampungs in Jakarta. Throughout this narrative there
are two underlying questions. First, how are community values and practices (rukun, gotong royong (mutual self-help) etc.)
actually manifested in the face of either internal or external threats, conflicts or surprises? And how might these values and
practices underlie a production of space that might be alternative to (or in conflict with) that of kota and the formal sector?
interpretation of the experiential social. He pointed out
that:
Introduction
‘Neighbours are more valuable, special and important than
relatives who live in other places.’ This traditional phrase
is well known among Indonesians. It describes the concept
of relationships among people in kampungs1. The research
method is to recollect and record my own lived
experiences in five different kampungs at different times,
especially my relationships with my neighbours. This
paper reports the results of this process.
To narrow this gap, the sociologists have to
devise a methodology that will enable them to
take into account the inner perspectives as well as
the outer perspective of the subjects under
investigation.
This
is
what
qualitative
methodology does (Filstead 1970:6).
Lynch (1996:5) pointed out that a distinctive and legible
environment offers security and heightens the potential
depth and intensity of human experience. In this research,
kampungs are part of the urban environment. To obtain
some insight into the distinctiveness, clarity and legibility
of people’s (kampung dwellers’) experiences (Lynch
1996), I will use an inner mode of investigation. Lefebvre
(1991) discussed how lived experiences can be
investigated through ‘lived, conceived, and perceived’
experiences of everyday life. He argued (1991:39) for an
understanding of “the space as directly lived through its
associated images and symbols, and hence the space of
‘inhabitants’ and ‘users’”. The ‘inner perception’ of
kampung life can be investigated in part through one’s own
lived experiences in different kampungs at different times
or through people’s own descriptions of their experiences,
practices and beliefs, as will be explained shortly. The
inner perspective assumes that understanding can only be
achieved by actively participating in the life of the
observed and gaining insight by means of introspection
(Bruyn, 1963:224-35). From my own lived experiences I
have perceived kampung life from inside. Others’ own
accounts give further stories that might complement (or
indeed contradict) my own. This gives the people who live
Research Method: Inner Perception
The research will focus on the investigation of kampung
dwellers’ experiences in their kampungs, and how they
perceive kampungs as a part of kota2 Jakarta, to understand
the characteristics of kampung itself. In social research,
there are two broad methodological perspectives: the outer
perspective and the inner perspective (Bruyn 1966:23-5;
Filstead 1970:4). Filstead (1970) discussed the concerns of
sociologists about the gap between theoretical,
methodological, and conceptual elements, and the
1 Kampung is the traditional, spontaneous, fine-grain, and diverse form
of indigenous urban settlement in Indonesia which has grown locally,
organically and incrementally over many years without planning
guidance or regulations, building codes or the centralized and
coordinated provision of services.
2 In Indonesia, kota has three common meanings: the original meaning is
negara (nation or government); it is also the name of an area in the city
centre or downtown Jakarta (China Town); and the third meaning is
urban, city or town. I use a fourth understanding of kota in this
research, which can be understood as formal, regulated, and planned
city. In the second of these meanings it is spelt with a capital ‘K’, as
Kota, while in the others with lower case letter ‘k’, as kota.
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Living in the Kampungs
▌FORUM. Vol.7.
in kampungs a way of expressing their own ‘inner
perceptions’ of their lives. The method, based on a form of
reflective self-observation helped me to understand what
kampungs are.
Menteng
Surprises and Shocks in Menteng Kampungs
(1978-1986)
Menteng is an elite settlement located in a prime area in
Central Jakarta. Menteng is also known as the first ‘garden
city’ or kota taman (Heuken and Pamungkas, 1997), with
Surapati Square (figure 1) as the centre of this area.
Menteng is the highest-income settlement in Jakarta, and
has the highest cost housing. From the beginning, this
place became a prime settlement for elites: Dutch colonial
officers, public officers, rich families, the nobility and
expatriates. Today, Menteng is the place where many very
important people live, such as the President and Vice
President, ministers, ambassadors, government executives
or officers (pejabat tinggi negara), owners and managers
of the conglomerates. In 1908, Menteng was established
by the Dutch colonial governor, General-Governor A. S.
Carpentier Alting, and continued by J. B. van Heutsz a
year later (Kompas, 3.8.2000). Menteng was the extension
to the south of Batavia city.3 At present, because of its
history, Jakarta’s government has decided to declare
Menteng a conservation area, as indicated in the Master
Plan of Jakarta 2010 (Pemprov, DKI Jakarta 1999). Thus,
Menteng is one of the most important places in Jakarta,
geographically and socio-economically.
Monas
Suropati Square
Figure 1. The Menteng Area: DKI Jakarta (key plan);
Menteng area and surroundings at present.
(Source: Pemprov. DKI Jakarta 1999; Holthorf 1998)
However, there are other ‘Mentengs’ surrounding Menteng
across the Malang River to the south: Menteng Atas,
Menteng Wadas, Menteng Sawah, Menteng Ratna, and
Menteng Pulo (figure 2). In Menteng Pulo is also located a
large cemetery in the centre of Jakarta. All of these are
recognized as kampungs.
Mangga
I lived in several different kampungs surrounding
Menteng, when I first moved to Jakarta, such as in
kampung Menteng Atas for three years from 1978 to 1981,
kampung Pasar Manggis for two years (1981–1983), and
kampung Gang Edi-Halimun for another three years
(1983–1986). On account of similarity of my experience in
these Menteng kampungs, I will focus the discussion on
kampung Menteng Atas.
Pasar
Gang
Menteng
Figure 2. Recollected map of Menteng kampungs
(Source: sketch by author)
3 Batavia is old Jakarta in Dutch colonial era (1619-1942).
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Living in the Kampungs
FORUM. Vol.7. ▌
household basic needs; one in the middle which sold fresh
food (in the morning and afternoon only); and another at
the right corner which sold daily needs. Behind these
tenement houses, there were home industries producing
tahu (traditional tofu) and tempe (traditional soybean
cake); and a small open space, a place for people preparing
mie bakso (meatball and noodle soup) on movable shops
before selling them to the residents in the kampung and the
surrounding areas even up to Menteng, Monas and
elsewhere.
Menteng Atas
Menteng Atas was the first kampung where I lived after
moving to Jakarta from Sibolga—a small town on the west
coast of the Province of North Sumatera—at the end of
1977. I moved to Jakarta to continue my studies at the
University of Indonesia, which at the time was located
around two km from this kampung. Because of its location,
it seemed to me that this kampung was a great place, close
to the city centre, in particular to my university, in the
middle of Jakarta and close to Monas4 and Independence
Square.
However, at the beginning of my experience of living here,
a question arose in my mind: is this settlement really part
of Jakarta city? I found the differences in experiences
between Sibolga and Jakarta surprising. I had never
thought before that Jakarta might be a kampung as well.
Even though this kampung was adjacent to Menteng, there
was no electricity distribution in it at that time. So for two
years, I lived here without any electric light. It seemed
dark and scary for a new resident like me, especially in the
evenings. At the end of 1980, the inhabitants were
surprised when our kampung was connected to the
electricity supply, and we celebrated electric light for the
first time.
Figure 3. Recollected map of my neighbourhood in
Menteng Atas
(Source: sketch by author)
As a result of its low socio-economic class and limited
area, most of the public facilities and infrastructure in this
kampung were inadequate. Right in front of my house
there was a MCK5 and a small open space, three metres
wide and four metres long. This small open space was a
mediating space between the houses, the MCK and the
langgar (small local mosque), which was located next to it.
The MCK is very important for kampungs because some
houses do not have their own toilet. For some people in
this kampung a house is just a place for having a rest or
sleep in the evening. Social interaction among family
members or neighbours takes place on the lane in front of
their houses, in front of warungs6 or other small open
spaces during the day. Sanitation in this kampung was also
very poor. Septic tanks were located next to the artesian
wells used by people to get water for drinking and
cooking.
The house itself looked like a hallway divided into three
parts: living room at the front, two bedrooms in the
middle, and service rooms (dining room, kitchen, and
toilet) at the rear. Thus there was no ventilation for the
bedrooms, except for windows and doors at the two ends.
The building had cement floors, brick walls, teakwood
ceilings, and a red clay tiled roof. Kampungs look very
attractive from above, with their mosaic of red roofs like a
beautiful mosaic painting. From a bird’s eye view, almost
all roofs in this kampung seemed to be joined one house to
another. Thus, it is easy to distinguish between houses,
open spaces (if any), waterways (if any), lanes or streets
(figure 4).
The small open space in front of my house was also a very
lively space, with children playing and adults relaxing,
talking and having fun. The lane, one and a half metres
wide, was also an important space in my kampung. Thus,
although it was used for pedestrians it was also an open
space. From morning to evening, this lane was a very
bustling place, with people walking through, talking to
each other, and children playing, particularly in front of the
three warungs, because there were no other adequate open
spaces for this activity.
I stayed with my relatives in one unit of a one-storey
tenement house. These houses were typically three metres
wide and eight metres long. The owner of this row lived at
the corner between the lane that ran along these houses and
the main street to the area (figure 3). In each row there
were ten units, and I lived in the middle. In this row, there
were three warungs: one at the left corner which sold
4 Monas stands for Monumen Nasional or National Monument. It stands
on the centre of the Independence Square.
The social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of the
people who lived along the lane where I lived were
diverse. We were from different ethnic groups (Javanese,
Sundanese, Betawi, Batak, and Chinese); from various
professional backgrounds (teachers, police, traders in
5 MCK stands for mandi, cuci and kakus (or public bath, washing,
toilet).
6 Warung is a traditional local shop/kiosk in a kampung, which usually
provides the daily needs of people in the kampung. Off-street warungs
refers to warungs in kampungs, which usually have no streets or, in
other words, these kampungs are accessed by lanes only.
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Living in the Kampungs
▌FORUM. Vol.7.
association), pak Haji (Islamic leaders),8 civil servants
(pegawai negeri), teachers, and people with higher
incomes. Our RT’s headman was a teacher in an
elementary public school who ran a warung at the left
corner of our row houses. The owner of the detached row
houses where we lived was pak Haji. He lived in the
biggest house in this neighbourhood at the right corner,
with his extended family: his children, his children’s
family, and his relatives from desas (in Central Java) who
were working for him to produce tahu (traditional tofu)
and tempe (traditional soybean cake). He also operated the
biggest and most complete warung in this kampung.
markets, food makers, owners of warungs, students, and
operators of home industries); and of different ages
(children, young families, and old people); and different
religions. Most of us were Moslems, with some Christians
and Buddhists.
We had regular monthly meetings in our community led by
pak RT, which took place in his house, in pak Haji’s
house, or in the RW post. The main topic of our meeting
was neighbourhood rukun,9 gotong-royong (mutual selfhelp), security, and other social and cultural events (such
as tujuh belas agustusan).10 To encourage neighbourhood
residents to come to this meeting, it was usually followed
by arisan.11
Figure 4. Roofs of Kampungs in Jakarta
(Source: Archnet in http://archnet.org/library/sites/onesites)
Every kampung always has its own Hansip (Pertahanan
Sipil or civil defense), which is hired by the residents to
maintain security. However, this is not enough to guard all
For daily shopping, residents just walked, because there
was a Pasar (traditional market) Ratna around one
hundred metres away and there were many warungs
nearby. Usually, all local pasars like this are also called
pasar basah (wet or fresh market) for two reasons: pasar
for fresh food, so they need much water, instead of
refrigerators, to keep their vegetables, fish, fruit, and meat
fresh; and the pasar is certainly wet on account of this
water. As a consequence of bad sanitation, it is not unusual
for pasars to bring bad smells into the area and its
surrounding settlement. In the evening, there was an
evening market along Jalan Kawi, 150 metres from my
place to the north. There were always people selling and
buying their basic needs such as clothes, kitchen
equipment, school materials, and many kinds of food.
Sellers placed them on a mat laid down on the path, even
on the edge of the street, leaving room for only one car to
pass down the street.
representatives of government. In the present reform era, people expect
that RT and RW (both leadership and organization) are fully their
representatives.
8 Pak comes from bapak, meaning Sir, Mr., or someone who is respected
by others because he is older, or more powerful socially, culturally or
financially. Haji is someone who has done the fifth rukun of Islam, the
pilgrimage to Mecca.
9 According to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (The Great Dictionary of
Indonesian Language 1988), there are three meanings of rukun. The
first is rukun as a basis, foundation, or principle, e.g. ‘rukun Islam’
(Islamic principles or pillars). The second is rukun understood as
‘good’ and ‘peace’ in connection with relationships. It also means ‘one
mind’ or ‘one interest’, or unanimous. The third is rukun as association
or organization based on mutual self-help and relationships, e.g.: rukun
tani (farmers organization); rukun tetangga (people, community or
neighbourhood organization or institution); and rukun kampung or
rukun warga (kampung or community organization in one sub-district).
In the discussion in this section, the second and the third of these
meanings are the most useful for explaining communities in
kampungs.
10 The words tujuh belas agustusan come from 17th August, our
independence day. For a week around this day people in kampungs
celebrate Indonesia’s Independence Day, more than the people in kota.
These celebrations include many attractions or competitions for
children, adults, women and men. And usually, on the Saturday
evening of this week, each community or a group of communities hold
a RW (neighbourhood) performance or cultural night. Tujuh belas
agustusan is mutual self-help activities: ‘from people’ (they create
their own ideas and collect money from the residents to perform these
activities); ‘by people’ (they are the committee members); and ‘for
people’ (these attractions are just for residents in the community or
neighbourhood).
Those who worked outside the kampung usually rode
bicycles or motor bikes, or caught public transport. The
closest bus stops were about 150 metres to the north and to
the west. During the three years I lived in this kampung, I
never experienced a flood in the area. I never faced any
difficulties in catching public transport to get to my
university. Sometimes I got to the university by walking or
cycling.
11 Arisan is the traditional and mutual self-help banking system in
communities, neighbourhoods or small groups of people to help the
members to get a large amount of money to use in a particular way for
a large household item. For example, in one community there are 20
households in the arisan group, and each member puts in Rp. 20,000
monthly, so they will get Rp. 400,000 when their turn comes. The
member can get one turn every twenty months through the draw at
every monthly meeting. Thus, they can buy extra household needs
such as electronics, clothes, and bikes.
The society leaders in our kampung were pak RT (head of
community association),7 pak RW (head of neighbourhood
7 RT stands for Rukun tetangga (community), which has a population of
250–300 people. RW stands for Rukun warga (neighbourhood), which
consists of about ten RTs. Even though the heads of both RT and RW
are elected by the people, during the Suharto regime they were also
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Living in the Kampungs
FORUM. Vol.7. ▌
Centre (Gelanggang Mahasiswa Kuningan) to the south of
Menteng Atas. This Student Sports Centre also changed
recently, before the Indonesian crisis, to become a mixeduse area of apartments (eighteen towers), private sports
centre, offices and commercial buildings such as an
international mega-shopping centre and food centre (a
collaboration between a French company and a local
conglomerate). Now this sports centre belongs to and is
managed by the conglomerate that owns the whole area.
areas in the kampung. Therefore, to guard the kampung,
RTs or RWs have a roster of adult male residents drawn up
for the night neighbourhood watch. During the monthly
meetings pak RT discusses the neighbourhood security and
comfort and evaluates the night neighbourhood watch. A
person’s watch duty could be performed by another
resident if he had a strong reason (such as sickness,
overnight job in his office, being outside the city). But he
should pay with cigarettes, coffee or tea, and snacks for the
replacement guards at supper time.
This attractive kampung has now gone. It was demolished
in the middle of the 1990s to build those eighteen towers
of apartments (each over twenty floors high) and a CBD.
Hari Raya Idul Fitrie, the great day of Islamic celebration,
is an important day in the kampung, because most of the
residents are Moslems. In the morning of this day,
Moslems go to the Mosque or to a large ground or field
outside the kampung, where they pray together and
celebrate this great day. When they return, everybody
(from all religious backgrounds) in the kampung comes out
from their home to the lane or street to give their best
wishes to the Moslems and apologize to each other for
their previous bad habits. The Moslem residents send
meals to their neighbours to share their joyfulness, and
conversely, on the other celebrations of other religions
(such as Christmas Day for Christians, Chinese New Year
for Buddhists) they also do the same.
Conflicts in Manggarai (1986-1992)
After I married in 1986, we (my family, my brother and
sister) moved to Manggarai to live in a bigger house, even
though still in an off-street kampung. This house was
located in a lane about forty metres to the south from the
local street of Jalan Swadaya II. The main street is Jalan
Saharjo, about 70 metres to the west of my house through
another lane (figures 2 and 5). On the day we moved there
I transported my household goods in several trips by car.
On the first trip I had a problem from a group of youths in
this kampung. They would not allow me to park my car on
the street close to the lane where we lived. They kept
standing on the street car park where I wanted to park my
car, and I had to push them away by force. One of them
fell down into the drain and we nearly fought each other.
Pak Haji, who lives in this street close to this place came
to separate us, and asked us to go in peace. From that
moment on the kampung residents recognized us as
members of their society. On the next trip, we were
assisted by some of my new neighbours, even though we
had just met each other. They came to help us to carry up
all our stuff from my car to my house. This was our first
experience of gotong-royong in this kampung. This
happened because all the residents in this kampung
respected pak Haji.
The most important facilities in this kampung are pasar,
warung, masjid, langgar, and MCK. Warungs have many
functions in kampung living, both social and economic.
Even though Jakarta is a modern, global capital city, its
trading system of warungs in kampungs is still traditional.
Almost every warung in kampung Menteng Atas had a
notebook to record the list of residents who had been given
credit by the warung owners. The residents would pay
weekly or fortnightly for informal sector workers and
monthly for formal company workers.
Another thing that made Menteng Atas an attractive
kampung was its accessibility to work places and public
transport. People who lived in that kampung had various
occupations: government servants (clerks, teachers,
administrators, municipal officers etc.), students, suppliers,
retailers in traditional markets, and home industries, but
most of them were unskilled labourers (informal sector,
construction labourers, vendors, servants, etc.). Generally,
people who lived in that area served or worked in the
Central Business District and Menteng settlement. There
was a strong connection between kampung Menteng Atas,
Menteng, and the Central Business District.
Right across the lane from our house was the pak RW. He
was also pak Haji, and worked as an amateur
photographer, and together with his wife also in their own
shop, selling daily needs and fresh food and also running a
photographic studio. Our pak RT lived behind his house in
a tiny lane, only half a metre wide. He worked in the
Ministry of Defense office as a clerk.
Our house was bigger (90 square metre), on one floor, and
more comfortable than any I had lived in before, with three
bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, two
bathrooms, and a place for drying clothes on the roof level.
Located on a corner, our house got adequate fresh air
through the windows and other ventilators.
The biggest problem was that there was no adequate open
space, or public-space for playing. People who lived in
kampung Menteng Atas actually had a public cemetery on
the south named Menteng Pulo, and they often used that to
play football or other sports. They also played football on
grounds along Jalan Kuningan (one of the main streets
linking south to north), when the area was still empty
before the new CBDs were developed. However, now
there is no public open space or public park along Jalan
Kuningan, except a small part of Kuningan Student Sports
We were helped in our home by a woman, a domestic
servant who was from a desa in Central Java. In kota life
style, even when they live in kampungs, most families are
supported by at least one domestic servant. As such
servants mostly live with their employer. When designing
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socio-economic activities in kampung Manggarai were
better than in any other kampung I had previously lived in.
houses for middle or higher socio-economic groups the
architect always allows for at least one maid’s room.
Domestic servants work in the home from morning to
evening. Their main jobs are home tasks such as house
cleaning, cooking, clothes cleaning, and also shopping for
daily needs.
The New Urban Kampung of Pondok Labu
(1993-2000)
In 1993 we moved to Pondok Labu, South Jakarta. The
area is on the border between city of Depok (Province of
West Java) and DKI Jakarta. Even though our area is in
West Java, our address still retains a Jakarta postcode.
Many people who live in border areas like this, particularly
in the Jabotabek area, still keep their Jakarta citizenship
identity card (KTP or Kartu Tanda Penduduk). After our
financial situation became more stable, we bought a parcel
of land in the South of Jakarta from pak Haji. The reason
why we chose this area was because the University of
Indonesia, the place where I was teaching, moved to
Depok (West Java), about 20 km to the south from Jakarta.
The land that we bought actually belonged to members of
a big family, and was their tanah adat (traditional land).
Before we bought this parcel, pak Haji first asked the
approval from his family members (wife, children and
grandchildren). When we moved there, this area looked
like a desa or rural green settlement. This is the type of
settlement that Krauss (in Marcussen, 1990) might call a
‘Peripheral Squatter Settlement’, although in this case
there was certainly no squatting. Our settlement was
surrounded by a lot of big trees, more than ten metres high,
like a tropical forest. This is now changing from a rural
settlement to become an urban settlement, and the trees
have been replaced by large luxury houses. Although we
lived in a bigger house (parcel 1 in figure 6) than ever
before, two floors with a total of 160 square metres floor
area on 250 square metres of land, our house was the
smallest in our neighbourhood. This kampung was also
growing up as an elite settlement inhabited by many
people from middle to upper socio-economic class: in front
of our house is the manager of the biggest shopping centre
in Jakarta (parcel 2); across the street from our house is an
expatriate French consultant to a big national private
company (parcel 3); another neighbour is President
Director of the biggest fast food franchise company in
Indonesia (parcel 4). The new residents live along the
street; however, living in side or off-street kampungs are
Betawi people, the indigenous Jakartans, and some
Sundanese and Javanese (parcel 5).
Figure 5. Recollected map of my neighbourhood in
Manggarai
(Source: sketch by author)
Security in this kampung was not as good as in the other
kampungs we had lived in before. The relationship
between people here was harmonious (rukun), but this was
not so in another neighbouring kampung located behind
our kampung. Many crimes were committed in that
kampung, such as using drugs and drunkenness, which led
to stealing, robbery and youths fighting. Our community
was one of the victims of this. While we lived there, many
bicycles, motor bikes and even cars were stolen from our
neighbourhood. As a result of this, we were not willing to
park our car on the street. We parked it in pak Haji’s front
yard, which was rented as a private car park; or we parked
it in a large rented car park area belonging to the military
warehouse, one hundred metres from our house.
Our experience of living there is very interesting. Even
though many residents moved from the centre of Jakarta
and from middle to high socio-economic groups, the
traditions of kampung, gotong royong and rukun are still
alive there. For example, the indigenous residents usually
give us some fruit from the first harvest of their plantations
(rambutans, mangos, and durians) in their large back yard
gardens. And at the time of Hari Raya Idul Fitrie (Islamic
Great Celebration) they still send us special food, which
they have prepared for others to become part of the
celebration, even those that are not Moslems.
Many traditional pasars were found around our
neighbourhood. In the morning, there were many
temporary morning markets at strategic places such as
junctions, open spaces, and on the street. Pasar
Minangkabau in Jalan Saharjo was the nearest pasar, about
seventy metres from my home. The public transport and
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FORUM. Vol.7. ▌
a low socio-economic class and the informal sector, they
exercise a vast influence on Jakarta. During the one week
of this season Jakarta is quiet and there are no traffic jams.
Conclusion
For new residents or outsiders, kampungs are full of
surprises. The biggest surprise is that kampungs truly exist,
and constitute the real settlement of Jakarta.
The original kampungs are very dense, with small houses,
little greenery, and poor public facilities and infrastructure.
I have experienced moving up the socio-economic ladder
gradually in different kampungs: from a small house in an
off-street kampung in Menteng Atas to a big house in an
on-street kampung in Pondok Labu; from poor to better
environment; from low to upper-middle socio-economic
status; from dense kampung to dispersed, sparsely
occupied kampung; from city centre to outskirts of city;
and from barren kampung to a green kampung. I
experienced no problems in living in those different
kampungs because I started life at the bottom.
Figure 6. My neighbours in Pondok Labu
(Source: sketch by author)
Pondok Labu is an example of a mixture of life styles,
between kota and kampung styles, and between urban and
rural patterns of behaviour. On the one hand, people who
have moved from the inner city (kota) have to adapt to the
kampung manner, and on the other hand, the indigenous
people have to understand and try to accept kota lifestyles.
I did not have any difficulty in adapting to kampung
behaviour because I was from an inner kampung, which is
not so much different from the peripheral kampungs. It is
different for people who have moved from Menteng to this
kampung. They need time to adapt to the social harmony
of a kampung. The indigenous people from this kampung
or surroundings have the opportunity of getting jobs from
the new residents as drivers, domestic servants, gardeners
and domestic satpam (security unit).
It is different when poor people from kampungs in the city
centre have been removed by force to the outskirts of the
city. They will face big problems. Whereas I moved closer
to my work place they finished far away from their work
place in the city. They do not own a vehicle to commute
more easily and faster to their work place, and the public
transport is usually inadequate. Even though I now live in
a better environment, I do understand why and how people
live in kampungs in the city. It is different when the
policy-makers or city planners have never experienced life
in kampungs. They only know that kampungs are poor, but
they do not know why and how the people live there. The
suspicion must be that, as the advocates of kota, they will
have difficulty seeing the merits of kampungs and the
richness of their resources of social capital represented in
rukun and gotong royong.
Among the indigenous people, social harmony is still
maintained. However, it is not as strong for the new
residents, because they need time to adapt to this
behaviour. Low social level servant groups can be a bridge
or ‘agent of social harmony’ to build better relationships
between residents, indigenous and new. In fact, the
servants’ groups have a social harmony among themselves.
Without permission from their majikan (boss), they are
free to lend or borrow any household stuff, such as ladders,
construction material, car tools and kitchen utensils. They
even help each other when someone needs assistance to do
heavy work or to solve problems. In the evening, after
working, they come together in front of the houses or
along the street and chat to each other about their daily
experiences.
The description of my own lived experiences in kampungs
in this paper provides a series of themes for thinking about
and analyzing the experiences of others, which I will take
further in the next research. These themes are: 1) social
relationships (rukun, gotong-royong, and the role of
society leaders); 2) spaces, public and social facilities
(lanes, open spaces, warungs, pasars, langgars, and
masjids, and their intricacy and absence of ‘order’ in the
sense of kota); 3) locality and distance (including the
dependence on public and informal modes of transport); 4)
territory (RT and RW); and 5) conflicts and the mechanism
for dealing with them.
Jakarta without servants would be a paralyzed city. As a
result of a dependence upon servants, Jakarta experiences
another big problem at least once a year. Annually, at
every Idul Fitrie season, almost 2 million people—and a
majority of them are servants—leave Jakarta to visit their
home towns to celebrate Idul Fitrie with their parents or
relatives.12 Even though the servants are from desas, from
12 Indonesians have a tradition of ‘mudik’ or going back to their home
town or home desa every Idul Fitrie season to celebrate Islam’s great
day of Idul Fitrie. At a national scale, the number of people who visit
their desa is estimated at 14.8 million (Kompas 1.11.2001) including 2
million from Jakarta (Kompas 8.11.2002). The majority of them queue
for two or three days in stations of bus terminals to get public transport
to their destinations. This number increase every year about 7–10
percent. Thus, Jakarta was predicted to obtain new migration, around
700,000 to one million people in the year 2003.
21
Living in the Kampungs
▌FORUM. Vol.7.
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