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Jakarta Post

View Point: National independence, sinking ships and sanitation

In five days time, on Aug

Julia Suryakusuma (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, August 12, 2015

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View Point: National independence, sinking ships and sanitation

I

n five days time, on Aug. 17, we will celebrate 70 years of independence from the evil colonial powers that oppressed us! Yaaay!

People will be engaging in competitions like eating krupuk (flavored starch crackers) hung on a string, balap karung (sack races), panjat pinang (climbing a slippery pole where various attractive gifts are hung at the top), tarik tambang (tug of war) and other traditional games associated with Aug. 17 festivities.

No doubt people will also be thinking of new ways to celebrate Indonesia'€™s seven decades of national sovereignty, but I reckon few would be able to outdo the originality of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. Susi'€™s plan to celebrate 70 years of independence is by having the Indonesian Navy blow up 70 illegal fishing vessels.

Well I never! But then, blowing up and sinking foreign ships in an attempt to combat poaching has been her thing since she assumed her post last year. But now, it seems she'€™s taking it to a new symbolic level.

Last year I wrote a column about her called '€œDesperately seeking Susis, Srikandis or state ibus'€ (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 12, 2014), but now I think the title has to be revised to '€œDesperately sinking Susi'€!

Sure, blowing up boats makes for dramatic political statement '€” ships exploding into smithereens amid clouds of black smoke (meaning, burning oil) against the backdrop of picturesque green islands lined with palm trees '€” just like a Hollywood action movie. It didn'€™t hurt Susi'€™s ratings either: The more boats she sank, the more her popularity rose (in February, 61 percent).

Unfortunately these cowgirl dramatics are almost akin to throwing out the baby with the bathwater. You get rid of the poachers, but you also damage the environment, create debris, not to mention kill fish.

But given that purportedly 5,000 illegal vessels operate in Indonesia'€™s waters, Susi probably felt that her hard line was justified. Oh, in the same way that executing drug offenders à la her boss President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo solves Indonesia'€™s massive drug problem? Yes, of course.

No offense Bu Susi, but personally, I prefer how my neighborhood plans to celebrate Aug. 17. Nothing dramatic, just the usual games, plus karaoke and ping-pong, and the most important event will be a clean neighborhood competition.

Puri Cinere, the housing complex where I live, is one community unit (RW) made up of seven neighborhood units (RT). The competition will be between these seven RT to see which is the cleanest and also which has the best umbul-umbul (beautiful decorative flags originating from Bali)

In a recent RT/RW meeting, we discussed the Aug. 17 celebrations. But the main long-term concern was neighborhood sanitation, not just the competition related to Independence Day.

I'€™ve been a resident of Puri Cinere for almost 24 years and was once been involved in the RT/RW committee and now plan to be involved again. The trigger was Robert, my Scottish neighbor.

Recently on a morning walk I spotted him clad in shorts and rubber gloves rummaging around in a pile of garbage, picking out the plastic trash.

Curious, I approached him. '€œWhat are you doing? Are you going to recycle the plastic?'€

'€œNo,'€ he said, '€œI want to throw out the plastic bags to prevent the mosquitoes using them as breeding ground,'€ because when it rains, the plastic acts as water collection areas.

Robert has been living in Puri Cinere for three years. He told me that he had had dengue fever recently and wanted to prevent his family '€” an Indonesian wife, currently pregnant, and his 2-year-old son '€” from getting sick from dengue or any other poor-sanitation related illnesses.

'€œThere'€™s not much point in your cleaning the immediate area around your house if other houses don'€™t do it,'€ I commented.

He agreed. That is why he had drawn up a proposal, which stated the mission, objectives and actions related to Puri Cinere sanitation improvement, which had to involve all the households in the whole complex.

There had, in fact, recently been an outbreak of dengue in the area, so Robert'€™s concern was well founded. Due to his concern about the neighborhood sanitation, he was regularly involved in the RT/RW meetings and also invited me to attend the following one, which I did.

At the meeting, Pak Rusnandar, head of the environment and sanitation division, read out Robert'€™s proposal. This was followed by earnest discussion around waste management: separating organic from non-organic, composting and the 3R concept (reduce, reuse, recycle) and setting up Bank Sampah: collection points for non-organic waste.

None of it was actually new, neither the problems nor the solutions. It was obvious that the issues we are facing in Puri Cinere are also the problems faced by Jakartans and indeed Indonesia as a whole. If you visit their website dinaskebersihanjakarta.com, the Jakarta Sanitation Department has done quite a lot. Jakarta already has 120 Bank Sampah, which is quite impressive.

But whatever system or method we use, the hardest part is implementation because it involves changing habits and mentality. All of us have seen people in fancy cars throwing out garbage from their windows, but then, the poor also dispose of waste thoughtlessly.

So it doesn'€™t help when a highly visible Cabinet minister like Susi engages in her explosive acts. Wouldn'€™t it be more responsible to impound the vessels and subject them to the 3R concept so that the ships can be used again in some shape of form instead of reducing them to rubbish which creates further pollution and damage?

Bu Susi, instead of blowing up your 70 illegal vessels on Aug. 17, we'€™d love for you to grace us with your presence at our humble celebrations in Puri Cinere.

It won'€™t be as dramatic, but it sure will be more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Let'€™s show that after 70 years, we can be free not just of colonizers, but also of polluting garbage!
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The writer is the author of Julia'€™s Jihad

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