Prabumulih. (maybe)
Prabumulih is a small city, located 30 km from Palembang. To reach Palembang, there's only one main road. Now, if you remember your geography lesson, there are many gas and oil drilling, as well as coal mining in Sumatra. Some of the resources are drilled and mined in the neighboring cities of Prabumulih, e.g: Lahat, Muara Enim, & Ogan Hilir (There is also one interisting city nearby, Sekayu, which is also a title of N.H. Dini’s book -but that’s a different discussion-).
You can find characteristics of sad interaction between globalization and local values here: traditional houses which do not serve their old function anymore, some people still build rumah panggung, but the open air room below the house is longer used to tie up their cattle, instead dedicated for closed rooms. More views: Abandoned rice fields, ruko-ruko with pastel or bright paint, newly built mayor offices among modern yet unmaintained houses, sleek cars collided with becak and ojek strolling in front of the traditional market, no chain restaurant besides CFC, and absolutely nothing is going on after 7 PM - absolutely a killer for an urban girl-.
The people that I met literally said, “We are sorry, there’s no entertainment center here, the city is so small.” They don’t need to be sorry about that. What they have to be sorry about is the number of their main road, connecting Prabumulih to Palembang. They only have ONE main road. The definition of main road here is a road broad enough for two lanes transporting big trucks carrying coal on each side. Kalo di Jakarta kecipratan air pas hujan biasanya dari motor, di Prabumulih kesemburnya dari truk batu bara. Hard core.
Regulation has it that the trucks can only go at night or dawn, but of course regulation goes out of the window, violations happen in daylight and are acceptable. Btw, these truck drivers have to drive about 80 km a day to bring the coal back and forth for Rp. 100.000,00 per return trip (people sipping 50.000 rupiah caramel macchiato, feeling guilty yet?*). There are so many trucks that use the street, in fact those were my main view for the last four days. The main road deteriorates, creates frequent congestion.
South Sumatra government had a plan to make more roads exclusively for the coal trucks, but they postponed it because they prioritized Sea Games. Citizen got mad and protested the government through Facebook (yes, they print Facebook comments on Prabumulih Pos), mass media, and other channels. The once elected governor may not probably be re-elected. His previous campaign program was free education (free basic operational cost, but people still have to pay for some extra cost) for students in elementary school to vocational school. That sounded good, but now, people stuck in traffic for 8 hours for 30 km distance (4 km/hour speed !!), people are mad at him. The only logical reaction, no?
South Sumatra government had a plan to make more roads exclusively for the coal trucks, but they postponed it because they prioritized Sea Games. Citizen got mad and protested the government through Facebook (yes, they print Facebook comments on Prabumulih Pos), mass media, and other channels. The once elected governor may not probably be re-elected. His previous campaign program was free education (free basic operational cost, but people still have to pay for some extra cost) for students in elementary school to vocational school. That sounded good, but now, people stuck in traffic for 8 hours for 30 km distance (4 km/hour speed !!), people are mad at him. The only logical reaction, no?
As someone who lives in Jakarta, what makes traffic jam still bearable is because I can meet my friends or family afterwards, sometimes with fun entertainment, lots of choices, lots of channels for expression. In Prabumulih, a city where nothing much happens, major static traffic almost everyday in a week shouldn't be their niche, or entertainment, or however you call it. The question is, does the coal go for Indonesian people? How about the tax from the mining companies? Does the local government distribute the money wisely for their citizen? Because, if the government uses the money wisely how come an 8 hour congestion is a routine?
In short, this post can be summed up to the F word to whoever is responsible for the traffic. I missed my 1 PM flight, and got the only 3 seats left for Palembang-Jakarta route. If I hadn't got the seats, the only seats available were for after Christmas. To see the bright side of this experience, now I understand why "I'll be Home for Christmas" is always on repeat at holiday season.
Now, rewind to my Jakarta-Palembang flight before I stepped on Prabumulih; my seatmates were guys from mining industries, one was a geologist (around 27 year old), the other one was in senior position (in his late thirties). The latter introduced himself to me while I was wearing my headset - how rude and persistent, huh-, asked about my job and salary (Rude, I didn't answer the salary part), and he assumed that my salary was lower than the young geologist's (RUDE!). I was so not impressed by these rich mining people on my plane. He summed up the life of mining company workers: work in remote area, save the money, go to the city, marry the young and beautiful woman (perempuan baik-baik, he literally said), nabung beli rumah, beli mobil, tinggalin anak istri sebulan dua kali ke daerah, pile up more money, give international education for the kids, of course before that buy Porsche baby stroller or The Silver Cross Balmoral Pram for the twins. Basically, this is the new middle class in Indonesia, you can be educated and rich enough, in the meantime being consumptive and being snob about what you do. This may be a behavior generalization, maybe I was just upset how these companies did not do anything (yet) and encourage the government to build more roads and increase the local area's quality. My lil brother studies Geology, he surely will have lots of briefing from me before he launches his oil company snobbish attitude next year.
*I am currently sipping my 20 ml, Rp. 30.000,00 espresso shot with a dallop of frothed milk on top