A challenge for Indonesia today: The `republic of beggars' stigma

Mochamad Subhan Zein, ,  Canberra   |  Sat, 01/24/2009 3:23 PM  |  Opinion

I was enjoying my last bite of lunch in a kedai (coffee shop) in Gegerkalong Girang Street, Bandung, when an elderly woman approached me, asking for money. I gave her Rp 1,000 and continued with my drink but soon realized something peculiar had just happened - she was not the only one.

She was the third beggar asking me for money during my 10-minute lunch. That means one beggar every three minutes! The other two had been a child who was about 10 years old and a woman with a baby at her chest.

I then wandered around and was astounded by the fact that there are lots of beggars on the streets. My astonishment did not stop there. I found that Bandung now has many. And so does Jakarta.

Here and there in Jakarta you can see hundreds, maybe thousands, everyday. Returning from abroad for research that I needed to conduct for my postgraduate studies, I traveled quite a lot these past few weeks to gather data and discovered that there are more beggars in Jakarta now than there were 18 months ago when I left the country.

They are almost everywhere. Most of them are on the streets. From an elderly blind person to a disabled person with only one foot, they ask for money.

Some are middle-aged women who stand at the exit gates of mosques or churches every mid-Friday or Sunday morning asking for charity.

Suddenly, young children are also begging. Instead of studying at schools, these children will sing a shortened version of a song for people waiting at a traffic light. They will then ask for money before the light turns green.

If you happen travel economy class in a train, such as Mataremaja (Jakarta-Malang), then you will see even more beggars than found in other forms of public transportation.

During a 20-hour trip to Malang from Jakarta two weeks ago, I was quite shocked to see that beggars appeared almost every five minutes.

Knowing there are many Muslims riding the train, they chanted the shalawat (song) to the Prophet Muhammad, recited verses from the Koran and begged for money afterwards. That sounds like a good strategy, doesn't it?

" People need, therefore, to be motivated. The government has to remind them that a beggar mentality is sinful and against any religion.

"

This phenomena, in my opinion, is remarkable and can be further explained from two different of views.

First, it is possible to say that many Indonesians are now severely poor. According to the Central

Statistics Agency, in 2008 there were 34.96 million people living in poverty.

For many years people have been taught that Indonesia is very rich, and perhaps is the richest country in the world in terms of natural resources.

What happens is that the richness of Indonesia's natural resources cannot make the people rich. The prosperity of Indonesia's lands does not contribute to the prosperity of its people.

In fact, many people suffer from a low level of income by which they cannot even find the resources to feed themselves and their children. Far from being able to send their children to school, their greater concern is having enough money just to meet their daily needs.

The data from detik shows that Indonesia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has reached its highest level in the country's history. In 2007, an Indonesian citizen was capable of earning US$1,946 per year. This is equivalent to about Rp 17 million per year. Compare this to 1998's GDP of $610.

Yet, this increase does not mean anything if in fact there are still many people who cannot even feed themselves.

What can we be proud of if more rich people have successfully increased their revenue while at the same time more children cannot attend school just because their parents cannot afford to pay for textbooks?

To put it another way, how can we be happy if more people are becoming so poor they have to beg for money?

The solution is not simple, however.

The people who beg in the streets may not actually be that poor. It is possible that, given the strong competition to enter the formal workforce, they feel it is easier to ask for charity from others.

The pressure is even stronger if their environment allows them to do so. This is especially true when the news reported that many of them build their own beggar communities and pay a "tax" to their leaders.

Earning money through begging is indeed tempting. By sitting on the streets or chanting religious songs, they can earn money easily, even without qualifications or skills.

In other words, they can earn money without being educated. Why should you go to school and spend money when you can earn money on the streets? This may be the kind of question that parents ask, encouraging their children to enter the "workplace" on the streets, buses and trains.

This eventually creates some sort of beggar mentality. They may become lazy and do not want to find a job. In order to earn money, rather than working hard by selling bananas in the market or something like that, what they would like to do is find a shortcut. And that shortcut is begging. Just like other shortcuts, begging is easy to do. It does not need anything. It does not need education nor skills.

People need, therefore, to be motivated. The government has to remind them that a beggar mentality is sinful and against any religion. Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism all teach the same thing, that begging is not a good thing.

It is therefore imperative to teach and motivate people not to beg. No matter how hard life is, it is always important to bear in mind that begging is against human values.

The writer is Associate Lecturer in the School of Arts and Humanities at State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. He is enrolled in a TESOL postgraduate program at the University of Canberra, Australia.

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