INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES...

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES

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The Moon Dies in Northern Bekasi: Development, Impoverishment and the Irony of the Paddy Granary

Khaerul Umam Noer

Biodata: Khaerul Umam Noer is a lecturer at Department of Public Administration of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Muhammadiyah Jakarta Univerity (UMJ).,He is also Managing Director of the Center of Women and Gender Studies, University of Indonesia. His research interests are gender and public policy. The author can be contacted on the email address: [email protected]

Abstract

The issues of development in Indonesia is always interesting to be studied, especially the impact of development on the society. This article tries to picture how development in the Bekasi regency has changed the face of Bekasi fundamentally, from an agricultural area to an industrial area, as well as its impact on the society. Specifically, this article shall explore the northern region of Bekasi. The regency of Bekasi, which is very strategic due to its direct shared border with Jakarta, in addition to the fact that the land area is extensive, has made Bekasi the target of industrial development, especially in the southern area of Bekasi. This has had a real and viable impact on Bekasi’s PDRB (Produk Domestik Regional Bruto/Regional Gross Domestic Product). However, the industrial development has left behind one serious issue, the industrial waste that flows from the south to the north, which ends in the Sea of Java. On the other hand, the needs of housing from the workers in the eastern area of Jakarta and Bekasi as well as the price of the land that is still cheap, has made the northern region of Bekasi a favorite option for housing. This has encouraged the conversion of land use from farming land into housing areas that is uncontrollable. These two problems, the industrial waste and the farming land conversion, are the problems faced in the northern region of Bekasi. The development that was championed as the surefire solution to break the chain of poverty has instead backfired to become the cause of an increasingly more structural kind of poverty in the society, as it did not simply eliminate the livelihoods of the people, but also has caused an ecological disaster that is uncontrollable, which in the end becomes a broader catastrophe.

Keywords: Bekasis province, sustainable development in Indonesia, gender issues and the environment in Indonesia

Introduction

It was the year 417 AD. That a dark cloud was hanging, the moonlight has dimmed over the

sky of Tarumanegara,1 a dim hint of light in the castle is reaffirming the concerned look on

the face of the king. His Majesty Purnawarman is worried, because his kingdom’s territory

was often plagued by flood and drought. The Tugu Stone Tablet (Prasasti Tugu) recorded, that

on the date of the 8th, half month of Phalguna (paro petang bulan Phalguna, around March),

the king instructed construction of the canals of Gomati and Candrabagha with the length of

6.122 spears (equal to 24.448 m), a task that was finished in 21 days. Thus, on the 13th of the

1 Tarumanegara is a Hindu kingdom in the West Java area, with its territory spans from the Bogor in the west

of Jakarta up to Bekasi, along with some part of Jakarta and the surrounding areas.


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half month Caitra (paro bulan Caitra), His Majesty Purnawarman hosted a celebration which

was led by the Brahmana (Hindu religious leader caste) by donating 1000 cows as a form of

his gratitude to the completion of the Gomati and Candrabagha mega project. It was not

known exactly where Gomati is actually located, but Candrabagha was believed as what we

nowadays know as the Kali Bekasi (Bekasi Canal). The name Bekasi itself, according to

Poerbatjaraka, was taken from the word candrabagha (part or a piece of the moon), which

then changed into bhagasi and later on became Bekasi (Sagimun, 1988; Alrasyid, 2006).

In its passage of history, since the beginning, Bekasi has been an agricultural area. This

is known from the Tugu Stone Tablet which contained the records regarding the construction

of the Gomati and Candrabagha canals for farming irrigation and watering. Even after

Tarumanegara collapsed, which then changed into the Padjajaran kingdom and the

Sumedanglarang kingdom, the colonial era up to the independence of Indonesia, the position

of Bekasi as one of the main production areas of rice, alongside Karawang, remains

irreplaceable (Alrasyid, 2006). Bekasi was once known as one of the national paddy granaries.

The praises for the success of Bekasi as the national paddy granary is now gone without any

trace at all. Bekasi is a portrait of how a piece of a moon shining brightly for over a millenia

has now dimmed, blackened and died.

Before I moved further too faraway, there are two things that I need to underline.

Firstly, the mentioning of Bekasi here would refer to the regency of Bekasi (Kabupaten Bekasi).

I am not discussing the city of Bekasi (Kota Bekasi) due to the relevance of the problem that I

would like to raise here. Secondly, this article is based on my life experience, a village boy

born and raised in Babelan, that felt how my village changed until I can barely recognize it at

all. Specifically, this article has two objectives: One, to elaborate the mess of the problem that

happened in the northern region of Bekasi as a result of national policy which resulted in the

formation of areas in the Bekasi regency, which are the residential area and the industrial

area. Two, to elaborate how this zoning is affecting the life of the people in the northern

Bekasi region, which are pressed hard in-between two basic problems: the industrial waste

coming from the south and the land use conversion in the north. In addition is the problem

of climate change which impacted the people of northern Bekasi. In the eco-feminist

framework, I will try to explain how human, both women and men, have become the victims

of the problem of development that does not take account the balance of nature.

The waste flowing afar2

The regency of Bekasi is located in the Province of West Java, located right at the east of

Jakarta. It is hard to determine the main characteristics of Bekasi, whether it is a coastal city,

industrial city or agricultural city. Bekasi with its 23 disctricts spans assymetrically and is

bordered by the city of Bekasi and the Jakarta Special District Capital Region on the west, the

Sea of Java on the north and west, the Karawang regency on the east and the Bogor regency

on its south. Its strategic location made Bekasi the main crossing from and to Jakarta. The

development in the Bekasi region is closely connected with the development policy on the

national level, or in this case the Five Years Development Plan (Rencana Pembangunan Lima

2 Limbah mengalir sampai jauh (this is a pun over the famous song of Bengawan Solo, where one of the lyrics is

mentioning that the water of Bengawan Solo is flowing afar)


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Tahunan/Repelita). I am emphasizing the Repelita matter, because basically what happened

in Bekasi, especially in the northern region of Bekasi at this moment, is the result of six

Repelita that were decided during the time of the New Order, which has structurally and

massively changed the face of Bekasi.

At the beginning Bekasi was determined as one of the paddy granaries of Indonesia.

During the time of Bekasi’s first Regent, Soekat Soebandi (1967-1973), the main policy

stressed the development of agricultural infrastructure. In a historical context, this came as

no surprise. The construction of Candrabagha and Gomati canals in the 5th century originally

was aimed to the use of irrigation and prevention of flooding. This was in line with the Repelita

I (1969-1974) that stressed the fulfillment of basic needs from the field of agriculture. This

policy was further kept by Soekat Soebandi’s successor, Abdul Fattah (1973-1978 and 1978-

1983), at least until his first period of leadership.

Figure 1. Kabupaten Bekasi (Alrasyid, 2006)

The turning point of Bekasi’s outlook was in the second period of the Regent Abdul

Fattah, when the policy of Repelita III emerged, which underlined the building of high

employment industries for the interest of export. The regent of Bekasi then decreed a

Regional Regulation of 2nd Level (Regency) of Bekasi No. 13/HK/PD/0212/79 (Peraturan

Daerah Kabupaten Dati II Bekasi No. 13/HK/PD/0212/79) which regulated the development

in various sectors with the priority in the industrial sectors (Alrasyid 2006). Based on that

regulation, there were some changes in the area usage, especially in the Southern part of

Bekasi. With the development of various industries in the southern of Bekasi – it was not

surprising Abdul Fattah was mentioned as the Father of Development in Bekasi. Areas such


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as Cibitung, South Tambun, North Tambun, West Cikarang, North Cikarang, South Cikarang,

East Cikarang, and Central Cikarang (please see picture 1.), which originally were area of

farming and plantation, were converted into residential and industrial zones. The acceleration

of this conversion was further hastened with the beginning of development of Jakarta-

Cikampek toll road in 1982 – which was opened officially in 1988 – which passes through

Bekasi right from South Tambun, Cibitung and Cikarang.

While Abdul Fattah only opened the gate for industry to enter Bekasi, it was Suko

Martono (1983-1988 and 1988-1993) who rolled out the ‘red carpet’ to the investors. The

paradigm of Bekasi’s development underwent a shift – if not a total make over – in the era of

Suko Martono which pointed in the direction of industrial development. The birth of Regional

Regulation No.15/HK-PD/OP.013.1/VIII/1984 on the Basic Pattern of Regional Development

of 2nd Level Region Regency of Bekasi (Peraturan Daerah No.15/HK-PD/OP.013.1/VIII/1984

Tentang Pola Dasar Pembangunan Dearah Tingkat II Bekasi) reaffirmed this conversion, that

the basic pattern (of development) that would be done in Bekasi was the development of

centralized industrial area in the hope that it can be more easily managed with more control

(Alrasyid, 2006). The development of the industrial area was placed in the Southern of Bekasi,

with the consideration that the transportation access was easier, especially with the

construction of Jakarta-Cikampek toll road. Of course, what was done by Suko Martono

cannot be relieved from the government’s strategic policy through its Repelita III and Repelita

IV that focused in the major development of industries in Indonesia.

It was at this one point that one of the basic problems in the Bekasi region emerged,

that the development of Bekasi, regardless of whether it was fully realized or not realized at

all, divided Bekasi into two parts: north and south. The northern area of Bekasi, which include

Babelan, Tarumajaya, Tambelang, Sukatani, up to Muara Gembong was focused for the

interest of agriculture; meanwhile, in southern area of Bekasi, which include Tambun (North

and South), Cibitung, Cikarang (West, North, East, South and Central) up to Cibarusah was

targeted as an industrial area. The division of Bekasi implied many things, starting from the

economic gap up to the political gap, even more when the City of Bekasi was officially

separated itself from the Bekasi regency in 1996; thus, all the government activities of Bekasi

Regency moved to the South, to the area of Central Cikarang (Cikarang Pusat).

The policy of industrial development in the southern part of Bekasi has successfully

created many industrial areas, for example, the Jababeka Industrial Area (Kawasan Industri

Jababeka), MM2100 Industrial Town, Greenland International Industrial Center (GIIC), East

Jakarta Industrial Park (EJIP), Deltamas City (Kota Deltamas), Delta Silicon, Bekasi

International Industrial Estate (BIIE), and many more. Not less than 2000 factories packed the

area of Southern Bekasi. Those various industrial areas have from the tens to the hundreds of

factories operating inside. The East Jakarta Industrial Park (EJIP) area, for example, is recorded

to have not less than 88 large factories, in which the majority produce electrical components

and pharmaceutical goods; or the MM2100 Industrial Town Complex which is recorded to

hold 188 factories that produce electronic components, automotive goods up to plastic goods;

and the biggest one would be the Jababeka Industrial Area that owns 500 factories and the

Silicon Delta that has not less than 800 factories. The most amazing thing is that these

industrial areas are now joined together to become an International Economic Zone, which


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means that they are entitled to special facilities/incentive in tax, infrastructure, security and

fiscal. Therefore, the problems that occurred in this ZONI/IEZ are national level problems.

At a glance, there is no problem from the development of this extraordinary industrial

area in the Southern area of Bekasi. However, behind the thousands of factories that have

packed the Southern area of Bekasi, there is a great impact on the northern area of the

regency: industrial waste. There are four main industries in Bekasi: metal-based goods

(including machineries and its components and accessories) around 59.44%, chemical goods

(including derivative chemical products, pharmaceutical goods, crude oil and plastic) for

19.94%, food industry (including beverages, packing and tobacco-based goods) for 8.14%, and

textile goods for 5,93% (BPS, 2014: 246). If we look at the official portal of each industrial area,

it is always said that each area always have a Waste Water Treatment Plan (WWTP), which

means every area has their own center for waste treatment. However, the reality is not what

is being said by the government or the owner of their own respective industrial area. Waste

is flowing through the rivers, from the south to the north and into the Java Sea.

Bekasi has 16 big river canals: Citarum River, Bekasi River, Cikarang River, Ciherang

River, Belencong River, Jambe River, Sadang River, Cikedokan River, Ulu River, Cilemahabang

River, Cibeet River, Cipamingkis River, Siluman River, Serengseng River, Sepak River and

Jaeran River. The matter is that the majority of those rivers traverse from south Bekasi and

meet in three main rivers: Citarum, Bekasi, and Cikarang, and those three springheaded in

northern Bekasi (Daroyni, 2015). Consequently, the waste dropped into the river – whichever

the river is – in southern Bekasi will end in nothern Bekasi.

Nothern Bekasi is an area which is directly adjacent with Java Sea. In this area, all rivers

in Bekasi are springheaded. The development of the industrial area in Southern Bekasi

ignored this basic fact, that water flows through rivers and emptied into the sea, that during

its journey the rivers which traverse nothern Bekasi, carry anything dropped into it. In the

nothern Bekasi nowadays, for example, the river water is already unusable for anything.

When it reaches into nothern Bekasi, it has already blackened, is smelly, and full of foam. This

black water flows directly to the Java Sea in Northern Bekasi. If that thing has already made

the sky in northern Bekasi blackened, this condition is worsened by the uncontrolled growth

rate of settlements in northern Bekasi.

The paddy field that could not produce rice

Bekasi has an area of 127.388 Ha, where 72% of its territory is lowland with a height of 0-25

m above sea level. About 83,87% or around 106.814 Ha is stable land that is suitable to be

developed for various development activities and settlements, while the rest is senstitive

ground but still suitable to be developed and really sensitive ground to erosion, making it less

feasible to be developed. BPS (Central Statistic Beaureau) (2014:139) noted that about 52,966

Ha (41,58%) is farm land, while the rest 74,422 Ha (58,42%) is dry land, with 37,143 Ha from

this area has been made available for housing.

Data from BPS Bekasi related to land use is interesting to be observed because of

several factors. First, it is mentioned that the conversion of land usage of agricultural land is

very little. In 2010, it reached 53.584 Ha, (and then) dwindled into 618 Ha, so that in 2012

only 52,966 Ha of the farm land was stable. Second, there were data mentioning the surge of


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additional residential land on dry ground. In 2010, there were 20.935 hectares of residential

area, which jumped to 30.052 hectares of residential area in 2011, then increasing further to

37.143 hectares in 2012. This means that, in just two years there has occurred functional land

use conversion for dry land of about 16.208 hectares into settlement. If we combine the

functional relocation for agricultural land and dry land, then there was land use conversion of

16.826 hectares in just two years.

This data is very interesting because of two important matters. First, although it was

written 16.826 hectares of the land converted into settlement, but there was no clear data

which shows where the settlement growth point in Bekasi is. Second, if it was said that the

majority of functional relocation for the land was on dry land, it was supposed to happen in

southern area of Bekasi. Even in this matter there were two problems: in the same area they

are developing large scale industrial areas, as well as the difficulty of having ground water for

daily needs. This matter of course becomes a different problem when talking about the

settlement in the southern area of Bekasi The problem is BPS data are not consistent with the

reality of the ‘invasion’ of settlements that occurred on a massive scale in Bekasi, that data

mentioned paddy field areas, the majority of which is in northern Bekasi, “only” got

converted around 618 Ha is a definitive fault, if not to identify it as a public deception.

Northern are of Bekasi, especially Babelan and Tarumajaya are two areas in which

settlement growth is the most rapid. The BPS appeared to ignore the fact that Babelan and

Tarumajaya as the northern areas with the largest paddy fields are two areas which have

undergone the most land conversion. There are four main factors which cause the functional

relocation of agricultural land to happen on a large scale into residential land. First, Babelan

and Tarumajaya are areas that are directly adjacent to City of Bekasi and DKI Jakarta province;

Second, the land contures in these two areas are flat and stable; Third, the existence of ground

water; and Fourth, land price which is relatively cheap.

The crucial problem in northern Bekasi lies in land sales by people to the developer

which is getting more and more out of hand. If referred to the data from the District

(kecamatan), in 2009, from 4.952,57 hectares of Babelan area, a total of 1608.41 hectares

have been converted to settlements, and continued to rise in 2013 to 2504.77 hectares. It

means, only in five years, in the Babelan district alone, there has been a conversion in the

function of agricultural land into settlements not less than 896.36 hectares, or an average of

180 hectares per year that has been functionally converted every year . The strong suspicion

is that the data are actually much larger. It may be because the report of functional conversion

comes only from housing developers, not including the individual land owners who change

the designation of the land into rent or new plots, of course the majority of which is never

reported.

Functional land conversion from agricultural to settlement actually can be seen easily

by the naked eye. I noted, in 2010, there were 27 housing complexes in the Babelan area; the

amount significantly increased in 2014 to be 58 ready to use housing complexes, excluding

the previous housing complex which are enlarged by opening new clusters. If every newly

opened complex has just about 12 hectares, then there are 372 hectares of land which have

undergone functional land conversion. This amount will become larger if the housing


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complexes that have been fenced but still not been developed yet, and the commercial area

which is in the housing complex, or private rent houses are also counted.

The strategic position of northern Bekasi is directly adjacent to the city of Bekasi and

Jakarta and has become an extraordinary magnet. The existence of Kota Harapan Indah

housing owned by Damai Putra Group can be an example. When it was first constructed in

1987, Harapan Indah housing was only limited in Medan Satria, Bekasi City. As the demand

increased, they opened 9 new clusters in the Tarumajaya area, and up to now manage the

land with a total area of not less than 2200 hectares spread over three districts. The success

of Kota Harapan Indah, which became a gateway of East Jakarta to/from Bekasi, also

encouraged other developers to create residential areas in Tarumajaya and Babelan. Indeed,

there was Taman Wisma Asri before, which had stood since the 1980s, although its echo

began to be felt in the 1990s.

It means that the development of residential in Northern Bekasi which “based on data”

is only around 600 hectares over five years is a falsehood. The land conversion from the

agricultural to the residential becomes one of the most serious obstacles faced by northern

Bekasi. Although there is no formal data which admit how many houses have been developed

every year, at least I can say that the amount of houses developed are in line with the increase

of population density in northern Bekasi, also in line with the development of industrial areas

in Bekasi which is centered in North Bekasi District or eastern Jakarta. The development pace

in the northern Bekasi will be further accelerated with the construction of the Muara

Gembong port as well as the development of toll road lines which connect directly east and

north Jakarta with northern Bekasi.

The invasion of settlement construction in the north Bekasi, which was implicitly

admitted in the BPS data and Regional Development Planning Agency (Badan Perencanaan

Pembangunan Daerah/Bappeda) report, has made the northern area of Bekasi as the region

with the highest population density in the area of Bekasi, especially when compared with

southern Bekasi. Babelan, in this case, becomes the region with the largest population in

Bekasi. The mushrooming of settlements in the northern area of Bekasi is a social reality that

cannot be denied, that the area which was agricultural land was functionally converted into

residential land. The fields in the northern Bekasi now no longer produce rice, but instead

concrete and asphalt. Northern Bekasi is the epicentrum point of settlement construction in

Bekasi whose ripple does not only effect the migration of butterflies and snakes, but also

more intense floods and droughts.

Impoverishment in the (former) granary

"... The rapid growth of the population is a result of the high urbanization rate because of Bekasi Regency is one of the barometer of national economy, especially the manufacturing sector, so that there is a tendency of migration flows to look for jobs particularly in the industrial area in Bekasi District like Center Cikarang, North Cikarang, South Cikarang, West Cikarang, South Tambun and Cibitung Districts. This was shown by the characterization that Bekasi regency as a major industrial area in national / foreign scale with contribution from this sector to the total GDP is up to 76.58 percent, so the good and the bad of Bekasi Regency economy also gives a signal to the condition


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of the national economy." (Bappeda [Regional Planning and Development Board] Bekasi, 2013:35)

Reading the 2013 publication of Bekasi Regency Regional Planning and Development Board,

[it] confirms the main point: that Bekasi has left its basic characteristics, from an agricultural

region that focuses on farming into an industrial area with large industries as its foundation.

The government’s choice to make Bekasi an industrial region seems inseparable from its

strategic position which directly borders with Jakarta as the center of the Indonesian economy

and politics. This can be seen very clearly since the 1980s, when the development orientation

in Bekasi shifted radically and fundamentally changed the whole life of society.

What is happening in the north Bekasi, from drought to flooding, therefore, is not

something sudden and localized, but is a direct consequence of development policy at the

national level. Of course it is naive to ignore the fact, that the policy at the national level could

not be separated from, what Tsing (2005) called as, the global connections. That government

policy is detrimental to everyone, especially women, is closely linked with the capitalism that

is deeply rooted in the patriarchal system, or what is termed by Haraway (1992) as "the belly

of the monster".

Development plans by focusing on industry that is predicted to encourage economic

growth and will lead to increases in the people’s welfare is basically an empty dream.

Northern Bekasi already proved how the dream of development without understanding of

ecological impact and the influence on human life must be paid for with a very expensive

price. Northern Bekasi is a description of how development uncontrollably sacrifices human

wellbeing. Unfortunately, the Regent at this time, Neneng Hasanah Yasin, insists that

development in Bekasi should be further accelerated, hastened, and multiplied. In this case

the policy is clear: that the development is focused on the industrial development.

Policies to provide a wider space for industry is actually not surprising. In 2012,

Bekasi’s economic growth is 6.22%, higher than the average national growth rate of 6%. With

GRDI amounted to 76.58% from industry, Bekasi’s GRDI contributed 13.36%, or the highest in

West Java (Alrasyid 2015). Then it becomes very logical if the government of Bekasi is

increasingly eager to raise the GRDI of Bekasi. Of the four major industries, Bekasi generated

revenue that reached up to Rp.102.673.539,21 million, with details of each as follows: metal

goods for Rp.61.033.067,33 million, chemical for Rp.20.471.270,65 million, food for

Rp.8.353.459,57 million, and textiles for Rp.6.086.498,22 million (BPS, 2014: 250).

What is happening today is of course not only the fault of Neneng Hasanah Yasin. She

was the heir of the problem, whose policy is actually worsening the problem. As the head of

the regency, Neneng ignores the fact that industrialization policies do not change anything

but people who are getting poorer. If Norgaard and York (2005) came to the conclusion that

if more women become decision makers, both in parliament and in the government, then

there will be more and more attention given to environmental issues with the ratification of

and policy on issues that is pro-environmental and women's. What happens in Bekasi is the

perfect antithesis. Bekasi showed that women leaders do not always understand the

problems of women and women's interests. Northern Bekasi clearly shows that the policy


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issues that have a direct impact on nature will also have a direct impact on the lives of human

beings, especially women.

The main problem is this point: that northern Bekasi is squashed by two policies that

are related to one another. The problem from the south is the waste that flows freely to the

north, that the industries developed in the southern region of Bekasi are industries that

produce waste that is hazardous. Various companies that work in the field of metals and

chemicals, for example, produce the B3 waste (hazardous and toxic materials) which are

discharged directly into the rivers around the factory without going through any cleaning

process, then the water flows directly through northern Bekasi towards the Java Sea. This

makes the surface water in the area of Bekasi, especially in the northern Bekasi, unable to be

utilized by the community.

Strangely, although Bappeda (Regional Planning and Development Board) of Bekasi

explicitly mentions industrial waste, it is said that such waste is only viewed as natural

resource degradation (Bappeda, 2013:56). By hiding behind the lack of data that definitively

explains the quantification of the amount or the extent of degradation, the local government

fails to see that the waste that flows has reached a very dangerous level. The rivers that pass

through northern Bekasi, such as Cikarang rivers (better known as CBL or Cibeel [Cikarang-

Bekasi-Laut/Sea]), are already unusable, except as a means of transportation for local

residents. The water that is thickly blackened with foam means the CBL water cannot be used

by people who live around it. In fact, not only is it the major rivers like CBL, small rivers (usually

called a canal/stream) also cannot be used anymore because the water is blackish brown and

often smelly.

On the other hand, the invasion of settlements that converts agricultural land into

housing raises two main issues: the increasing friction in society and the increasing difficulty

in obtaining ground water. Uncontrolled land sales, mainly because of investors’ persuasion

as well as getting money quickly because they (the people) want to go on pilgrimage, making

the lands that formerly were paddy fields turned into housing which is then purchased by the

settlers. The settlers issue has become very serious when we talk about the friction in the

community. In the area of Desa Bahagia, where I live, for example, out of 109.321 inhabitants,

only less than 30% are indigenous people (ID Card of Bahagia Village). Problems arise when

the "culture" of the settlers is clashing against the "culture" of indigenous people. There are

countless frictions that have arisen, such as the establishment of religious worship places as

well as misunderstandings due to cultural gaps between settlers and locals. The case that

attracts most attention is the refusal for the statue of Tiga Mojang (Three Girls) in Harapan

Indah housing complex in 2010. It was considered as harassing people who are predominantly

Muslim because it was considered vulgar and not in accordance with the cultural values of

Bekasi people who are patriotic and religious. The issue even evolved into a religious matter

because Tiga Mojang is considered to be a Christian symbol.

Another problem that also appeared in the north Bekasi is clean water. The difficulty

is not just because the reservoir land is diminishing because the paddy field has changed its

face into housing, but also uncontrolled water extraction. In the Babelan region for example,

shallow ground water with a depth of 5-25 meters has been impossible to find. Residents who


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want to dig a well have to dig as deep as 50-100 meters to get water; it means the obtained

water is included in the category of deep groundwater (Daroyni, 2015). The problems do not

stop there. Deep groundwater extraction in some areas in the north Bekasi causes the

widespread intrusion of sea water. The water problem is a crucial problem in the northern

Bekasi. With surface water which cannot be used and ground water that needs to be taken

deeper and deeper, these things are becoming problems that people have to face.

The main victims of water problems are households, especially women. In a cultural

context, women are responsible for the sustainability of household activity, including the

availability of water. The main problem lies in the difficulty of obtaining groundwater. Even if

the ground water can be obtained, not all groundwater in northern Bekasi can be consumed.

In some rural areas, for example, due to the wider sea water intrusion, groundwater cannot

be consumed because it tastes salty. In other areas, such as those crowded by housing, the

ground water has even been hard to obtain that it must be bought from PDAM (Regional

Consumption Water Company). Now, drinking water sellers are widely spread, even all the

way to the countryside. Of course it makes life more difficult for women, because of the cost

to subscribe for or to purchase water has to be taken from daily shopping budgets.

The land issue and the difficulty of getting ground water has also influenced other

areas: the lack of crop diversification in the fields and yards. Previously, northern Bekasi was

not only known as a rice producer, but also for its vegetables. Vegetables such as cucumber,

eggplant, kale, and spinach are plants commonly grown by the community, both in the fields

and yards. In the past, fresh vegetables flow from the fields and yards, moving into Babelan

market, further towards Cibitung market. Rice and vegetables move from north to south.

Currently, rice and fresh vegetables must be imported from other regions, gathered in the

Cibitung market and then distributed into the Babelan market to houses. Rice and vegetables

are now flowing the other way around from south to north.

It is not only vegetables that are undergoing reverse flow. Fish and other marine

products also experienced the same reverse flow, from south to north. Waste that flooded

rivers in the north Bekasi brought the consequence of the loss of the fish that were usually

abundant in the rivers in Bekasi. There were many stories of how the old people in the

northern Bekasi could fish freely in rivers where the water ran clear, how northern Bekasi was

once one of the fish producer areas that met the needs of the markets in Bekasi. Now, it is

impossible to fish, because the fish have gone a long time ago. What is left in rivers and

estuaries are only mussels which are very dangerous for consumption because of a very high

level of lead content. So as to meet the nutritional needs of fish and other marine products,

they must be brought in from other regions, which -- of course -- has an impact on household

spending.

Irony of the paddy granary

If His Majesty Purnawarman built the Gomati and Chandrabagha canals to support the

allocation of Bekasi area as the basis of an agricultural society, then that canal nowadays only

becomes a canal for waste dumping. Those that were known as an agricultural society that

produced rice, vegetables and fish that did not simply fulfill their own subsistence ethics, but

also supported the needs of markets in Bekasi areas have now gone almost with no trace at


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all. Rather than to liberate and strengthen, the development that happens in Bekasi instead

erased the pride that was once existed in Bekasi and created an irony beyond comprehension.

This is what I refer to as the irony of the paddy granary.

The irony of a paddy granary happened when the central government and the local

government changed the paddy granary that had survived for more than one millenium and

fed millions of people, just for the sake of industry. The irony of the paddy granary happened

due to the failure to understand that the problem of development isn’t just to spread out the

red carpet to the investors and encourage the establishment of more chimneys that puff their

smoke endlessly or to change the farmland into a house of monopoly, but also to understand

the consequence, both wanted ones and the unwanted as the impact of the development

itself. The irony of the paddy granary is also not just limited to the uproar and endless debate

of regional identity, which somehow Bekasi has always been identical, or has identified itself

with the values of patriotism and religiousity. Bekasi has lost its identity as an agricultural

society that is multicultural. The irony of the paddy granary is an irony that this very vast land,

once so fertile and rich, has changed so drastically in less than five decades.

The development in Bekasi has instead produced what Shiva (2005) referred to as

being homeless in the world village. Not because of forced eviction but instead because the

people were encouraged to sell their land. It is an irony that tests our logic when someone is

selling their land to property developers, in which on that land, later on, a housing complex

will be built, and then that same person will buy the house from the developer for their

married children on land that was once their own. It is an extraordinary irony that a region

that was once a rice, vegetables and fish producer now, in order to fulfill their own

subsistence needs must procure these goods from other places. Rice, vegetables and fish now

have to be brought over from other regions. Food independence only becomes a spell that

can never be made true. This irony surfaced as the consequences of the developments in

Bekasi that neglected the human dimension.

The acceleration of Bekasi’s growth as an effect of the development that has put

importance on the profit and the increase of Goss Regional Domestic Income only produced

a poorer and poorer society. Impoverishment is becoming the result of the unbalanced policy

what was imagined by Nelson and Weschler (1996) that society’s sustainability is the main

requirement of a government’s ethical values, clearly becoming an empty statement when

faced with the reality that happens in Bekasi. The problem lies in the understanding that

development does not always provide the biggest benefit to the society. Rather than

reviewing development policy, the Planning and Development Council of Bekasi (Badan

Perencanaan dan Pembangunan Bekasi) requested that development be accelerated by

opening the ease of investing. By building even more factories – on the assumption that this

will open more job vacancies, by building even more cheap houses – in which it is assumed as

an indicator that the person is no longer poor, and to push the access of transportation and

information to the remote villages – in the assumption that with easier transportation, it will

open more access to the investor’s capital. All these policy end up to one thing: Gross Regional

Domestic Income. The logic is simple, if the GRDI increases then the people will be more

prosperous. It is at this point that the Bekasi government failed to see that the increasing

GRDI has instead correlated negatively, with the increasing number of poor. The problem was


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even more dire, that poverty has always been seen statistically, that poverty happens because

the society is considered unable to keep up with acceleration in the growth of the

development. The fault is in the society, not in the development itself.

What is happening in the northern region of Bekasi is a counterflow that is flowing to

the lowest of the life of an agricultural society. It is hard to imagine the future when we see

how a region has changed so quickly to the point that it is hardly recognizable. The northern

Bekasi is a region that got hit the hardest from the industrial development policy in the south

and a huge scale invasion in the north. The impact of development in northern Bekasi is not

just felt in the society’s sociocultural life, but also seeped into the domestic life domain.

Women are the victims that suffer most seriously in that domestic domain. The effect of

development has a major impact on the domestic economy, nutrition fulfillment, supply of

food and clean water, to a range of serious health problems. These are the elements that

were not paid attention to by the government as the decision maker.

The development policy in Bekasi has influenced the people, especially those in

northen Bekasi. It is only waiting for a not-so-long time that the picture of a prosperous

agricultural society is nothing but a dream and slowly becomes a folk tale that is passed from

generation to generation. About the moonlight that dims and slowly dies in the sky of

northern Bekasi and about the butterflies and fireflies that were present but have long been

gone.

Reference

Alrasyid, M.H. (2006). Kabupaten Bekasi dari Masa ke Masa (Bekasi District From Time to Time). Bekasi: Badan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Kabupaten Bekasi

_______. (2015). “Pembangunan di Utara Bekasi dalam Perspektif Lingkungan dan Sosial (Development in the North Bekasi in Environmental and Social Perspectives)", paper presented in the Seminar on the Development of the Northern Bekasi, organized by the Ikatan Keluarga Abiturien Attaqwa and STAI Attaqwa, 18 April 2015

Bappeda Kabupaten Bekasi (Planning and Development Bekasi Regency). (2013). Laporan Bappeda Kabupaten Bekasi 2013 (Report of Bappeda Bekasi Rengency 2013). Bekasi: BAPPEDA Bekasi Regency. Can be accessed at http://portal.bekasikab.go.id:8080/alfresco/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/0efd3c97-c3a0-4cfd-9309-4109fdf73b67/PUBLIKASIFinalPDRBLapus2013_Isi%20%28Bappeda%292.pdf

Badan Pusat Statistik Kabupaten Bekasi (The Central Bureau of Statistics of Bekasi). (2014). Kabupaten Bekasi Dalam Angka (Regency of Bekasi by Number). Can be accessed at http://bekasikab.bps.go.id/publikasi/kabupaten-bekasi-dalam-angka-2014

Daroyni, S. (2015). “Menuju Pembangunan Bekasi Utara yang Berkelanjutan (Towards Sustainable Development of Northern Bekasi)", paper presented in the Seminar on the Development of the Northern Bekasi, organized by the Ikatan Keluarga Abiturien Attaqwa and STAI Attaqwa, 18 April 2015

Haraway, D. (1992). “The Promise of Monsters: A Regenerative Politics for Inappropriate/Others”, in L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, dan P. Treichler (eds.) Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, Chapman, and Hall. pp. 295-337


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Nelson, L.S. and L.F. Weschler. (1996). “Community sustainability as a dimension of administrative ethics”, Administrative Theory & Praxis 18(1):13-26

Norgaard, K. and R. York. (2005). “Gender Equality and State Environtalism”, Gender and Society 19(4):506-522

Sagimun. (1988). Jakarta dari Tepian Air ke Kota Proklamasi (Jakarta from Edge Water City to the Proclamation City). Jakarta: Dinas Museum dan Sejarah DKI Jakarta

Tsing, A.L. (2005). Friction: an Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press

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