JOHN TONDOWIDJOJO TONDODININGRAT

TALK MORE, LOVE LOTS, LIVE LONGER © Duncan Graham 2006

People don’t get along because they fear each other
People fear each other because they don’t know each other
They don’t know each other
Because they haven’t properly communicated with each other.


This quote from Martin Luther King, jnr features in students’ introduction to courses at the Catholic Communication Training Centre in Surabaya headed by a lean and fit septuagenarian frugal with clues to his age.

The only giveaway is when Romo (Father) John Tondowidjojo Tondodiningrat pulls himself up from a seductively deep sofa, and then pauses for a nanosecond to let the blood surge into lax muscles and any giddiness subside.

Moments later he’s striding across the reception lounge at Surabaya’s Gereja Kristus Raja (Church of Christ the King) like a lithe executive hunting a sale and going in for the kill.

But this man’s life mission is love, the banishment of misunderstanding and the construction of tolerance - and he’s determined to pursue these great goals to the very end.

“Poor communication can contribute to disease,” he said, quoting research that claims people who don’t talk to each other have a shortened life span. They certainly do when living in some of Indonesia’s sectarian hot spots and not through coronaries.

“When I was a child growing up in Yogyakarta relationships between Muslims and Christians were good,” he said. “There was better cooperation and we lived easily together. We accepted and respected each other.

“Disintegration started in the Sukarno era. Politics were based on religion. That’s different from religious politics. That’s created a situation where some politicians can exploit religious feelings and beliefs. It has not been good for my country.”

Romo Tondo was the eldest of ten children in a royal Javanese family which traces its roots back to the mid 15th century. His grandfather’s sister was the famous Muslim emancipationist Kartini who died as a young woman in childbirth and is now one of the nation’s heroes.

Naturally little John was expected to remain Muslim. But like many Javanese concerned that their children should get a sound education, his parents sent him to Catholic schools.

For then, as now, the Catholics’ reputation for scholarship and discipline cut across religious boundaries. And in the classroom young John proved a star pupil, excelling in the language of instruction, the tongue of the colonialists. It wasn’t their only contribution to his life; he also embraced their religion and converted as a teenager.

Apostasy is a singular and awful crime in Islam, with many sects practising social exclusion in the here and predicting eternal damnation in the hereafter for those with the courage to change. But Romo Tondo seems to have escaped at least one of these penalties.

“There’s been no problem with my family even though I’m the only one who’s a Catholic,” he said. “At the end of Ramadan I usually spend a week with them in Yogyakarta celebrating Idul Fitri (the close of the fasting month). My parents were broad minded.”

They were also blessed with an exceptionally gifted son who won scholarships to study in Europe, including five years in Rome where he added Latin and Italian to his repertoire.

He was ordained more than 40 years ago and returned to his homeland as a priest in the order of St Vincent de Paul who charged his followers to ‘embrace the world in a network of charity’.

“I saw that it was not a good situation in Indonesia,’ said Romo Tondo. “I knew I had to do everything possible to help ordinary people improve their conditions.’

The parallel ambition was to continue learning, which he did in Canada, the US, Britain, Holland, Australia the Philippines and a few other countries that may have slipped his mind.

His specialty was mass communications and he now uses his experience to teach the skills of journalism, filmmaking, public speaking and advertising. He travels the nation presenting train-the-trainer workshops in parishes, pushing the message of tolerance and the need to be informed.

He writes newspaper columns for down-market papers and is at ease in front of camera and microphone. His message is unambiguous: “If a person is Muslim then that’s their faith. We must respect that. Christ did not discriminate. People need good information, not rumors. There is a lot of misinformation about Christianity.”

The polymath’s most recent interest has been the French Revolution and the factors which brought it about. He sees parallels in Indonesia:

“The social distance is vast and getting bigger. Jobless numbers are huge and increasing. Nepotism thrives and there’s injustice. The use of Bahasa Indonesia instead of the formal and hierarchical Javanese language has promoted equality.

“But that advantage has been offset by the rise in neo-feudalism, particularly in the bureaucracy where those in power can have great influence over the lives of ordinary people. They have the qualifications but don’t use them. NATO – no action, talk only.

‘Some people at the top are like those in pre-revolutionary France. They think they are divine. Some have no real understanding of what is happening, of how others feel. They have not internalised the plight of the poor. There is so much crime because people have empty stomachs.

“Of course there is anger and envy, though mostly under control. But those emotions are there to exploit if the opportunity presents. Politicians are opportunists”.

The solutions proposed by Romo Tondo are founded on education, and ‘family values’ - which he says means respect for others, and making learning a priority. He was particularly critical of the quality of Indonesian teachers who, he said, maintained rote-learning practices, the memorisation of facts without analysis, and a rigid them-and-us approach to students. His other demands are for an improved and fairer tax system that can’t be sidestepped.

Since 1969 Romo Tondo and his Vincentian colleagues have been running an informal welfare organisation, spotting the genuine poor and talented, then making personal pleas directly to affluent Catholics.

He’s just sent 400 contacts a copy of his latest book on the challenges facing families. Inside an envelope inviting the recipient to donate to the poor.

“The Rp 10,000 (US $1.10) the well-off might spend on one nasi goreng (fried rice) could keep a child in school for a month,” he said.

This last comment was neither bitter nor accusatory, just a statement of fact. With his regal heritage, ecclesiastical status and overseas qualifications the urbane Romo Tondo could be a plump and pampered priest, disbursing saccharine theology, a must-have tame cleric on the five-star hotels’ A list.

Fortunately hubris yielded to the happy knack of feeling at ease in the plastic hovels of the poor and the tiled and monstrous palaces of the rich. And - more important – acceptable in both.

“I’m not saying there’ll be another revolution in Indonesia, but there’s always the possibility,” he said. “We must do everything we can to bring the poor into the future.

“We need a new system of government with educated leaders, people of goodwill. The qualities of egalite, fraternite, equalite which created the French republic are also part of our culture - if we can give them the chance for expression.”

(First published in The Jakarta Post 15 January 2007

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THE PONG OF PORONG

THE STATE’S HIGHWAY – OR THE PEOPLE’S PARK?
© Duncan Graham 2007

Most weekends we drive to and from Surabaya and Malang, the two major cities in East Java. In the good old days BC (Before Crisis) the trip took about 90 minutes using a toll road that goes about one third of the way.

Now up to five hours can be the norm.

Since the last leg of the turnpike has been drowned by the Lapindo mudflow disaster, traffic has been diverted through the village of Porong. This road now bears all non-rail freight south and east of Indonesia’s second major city.

What was once a rural byway has become Indonesia’s most congested thoroughfare, its thin asphalt pounded and rammed, bashed and broken by steel axles and black rubber.

Forty-tonne container trucks, behemoths hauling 24-wheel log-laden trailers, inter-city busses steered by Formula One fanatics, rusting tankers sloshing with high-octane fuels and toxic chemicals, pick-ups overloaded with perishables, medicines and merchandise, squeeze between thin-skinned cars.

The three-lane highway becomes two, then one. This is where the Porong market spills and splashes into the road every day, starting before sunrise and dribbling into noon.

Now the huge smoking, steaming endless convoy gets mixed with pedicabs laden with limp vegetables pushed by wrinklies, motorbikes revved by dreadnought hoons, backblock rustbuckets delivering and dumping, kids on bikes double-dinking, plump mums shuffling through the mass and the mess, their arms tugged taut by bulging bags.

You think you’ve seen mayhem on Indonesian roads? You reckon you’ve tasted toxins, coughed clouds of carcinogens? Not unless you’ve savored the pong of Porong: This is the ultimate clogged artery, thickened by the cholesterol of maladministration.

Bottleneck? A ridiculous metaphor. Better think of pouring rice through a straw.

Since the earth started bleeding black mud and burping white gas last May all bids to halt the hemorrhaging have failed. So have attempts to intelligently handle the unstoppable surge of traffic pouring through Porong.

To put it politely – the authorities have stuffed up big time. But maybe they were always doomed; roads in regal Britain may be the Queen’s Highway, but in this Republic they belong to the people.

In a country where parks are few and recreation centers the preserves of the rich, the poor have no-where to go but the bitumen.

Having a wedding, a circumcision ceremony, a funeral? No need to hire a hall or book a mosque, church or temple. Just commandeer the area outside your home and tell commuters and commerce to go elsewhere.

Need to kick a football, fly a kite, swipe a shuttlecock? The tarmac playing fields may be hard and narrow, but they’re straight.

Need some funds? Set up a roadblock and man it with thugs ready to scrape knives down your paintwork.

Want to offer your wares but don’t have cash for a kiosk? Problem solved – your selling space starts at the kerb and spreads outwards. Bang a few staples into the concrete, add four props, a tarpaulin, bench and table – bingo! It’s business on the blacktop. All you need is gall.

In other countries impeding the free flow of traffic is a serious offence. Roads are reserved for vehicles. In Indonesia the highway is public open space where cars are intruders.

Grinding along in fits and starts, overtaken by limping pedestrians, trying to shrink from bulging bald tyres towering over your roof rack, it’s easy to damn the market folk of Porong for endangering us all.

But where else can these already damaged people go to trade? They’ve lost their land, their homes, their jobs, their schools, their places of worship. Some have lost their lives.

Sure they’ve been compensated with a cornucopia of fine words pouring out of Jakarta. These may sustain newsprint – but not life.

There must be space somewhere for a new market, but the civil authorities who are paid to handle such matters haven’t looked or haven’t negotiated.

So as you suck in the fumes and feel your tenure on life lessening with every lungful, praying a load won’t slip, a tank rupture or a truck tip while you’re alongside to make the trip terminal, please forgive the people of Porong for making your journey a misery.

Their lives are miserable enough already.

(First published in The SundayPost, 14 January 2007)

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WONOSARI TEA

T IS FOR TOURISM © Duncan Graham 2006

If you are cold, tea will warm you.
If you are too heated, tea will cool you.
If you are depressed, it will cheer you.
If you are excited it will calm you.

That endorsement reads like a TV commercial jingle, but it has far more credibility. It was written by British prime minister W E Gladstone 140 years ago and the message seems to have held up despite the jerky rhythm.

State owned enterprises don’t have a good name for efficiency or productivity anywhere. And when the business is hospitality it would be reasonable to expect surly service and indifferent care.

So this column is happy to report that assumptions are no guide to practice, at least in the case of the Wonosari Tea Plantation and agro-tourism project.

More than 600 hectares of forest was cleared and planted with tea bushes on the slopes of Mount Arjuno about 30 kilometres northwest of Malang in East Java. That was early last century, and a few of the original trees are still alive.

During first president Sukarno’s purge of the Dutch in the 1950s the plantation was one of the many foreign businesses confiscated and nationalised. Now it has the unlovely name of PTP Nusantara X11, which certainly doesn’t carry a memorable ring.

Conscious of this the nimble-minded staff have named their retail products Rolas (Javanese for 12) thereby preserving the bureaucrats’ sense of importance while creating a marketable brand.

Apart from the over-staffing there are few reminders that this is a government business, though it wasn’t always like that. A few years ago the place looked unloved. It had notices forbidding photographs in the factory, apparently because it was feared spies would copy the technology.

As some of the equipment was installed by the Dutch in 1910 and is still in use the prohibition might indicate that industrial espionage was a hollow excuse. A more likely reason was public servants’ love of saying DO NOT rather than WELCOME.

Now the signs are cheerful and positive, the place looks well maintained and bright, even though when The Jakarta Post visited there’d been no rain for five months and water supplies were low.

“We have a new management team in place with a vision,” said Willy Franciscus, the plantation’s deputy manager. Although trained as a social scientist he’d previously worked as a tea taster before becoming an administrator.

“We want to create a proper museum illustrating the history of tea. We have such a long history here and I’m afraid we could lose it.

“A major problem is lack of water, largely caused by forest felling on the hills above. Now we’re planting 150,000 shade trees. We also want to make the place more interesting for guests.”

Everyone to their own taste, but for this visitor Wonosari is already packed with constructive and recreational activities. On the fun side there’s a big warm-water pool, mini zoo, playground, tennis courts and many other pastimes. For those who hate being out of the city there’s a karaoke lounge.

Educationally it’s one big schoolroom, minus the whiteboard and pedant. You can walk around the plantation or be driven in an open carriage rubber-tyred train.

Puji Iskandar who has worked at the plantation for around 20 years heads the tourist part of the enterprise.

“Most Indonesians are happy just to look around, but foreigners always want to ask questions,” he said. “We have educational tours of the factory and explain the process. People can see tea bags being filled and the packaging system.”

After the shiny green leaves have been picked they’re taken to ‘withering boxes’ in the factory to be partly dried by hot air. Dry season production is about three tonnes of leaf a day – much higher during the Wet.

The leaves are then chopped and fermented before sorting and further drying.

The old equipment from the Dutch era takes longer to process the tea, but the product tastes better, said Puji. About 95 per cent of the tea is exported in bulk and often blended with other leaves. Lipton is the main buyer. The locally sold tea has a touch of vanilla added for taste.

Up to 8,000 people visit at weekends, with many staying overnight in cottages or hotel-style rooms. More accommodation is needed.

If you don’t like crowds go during the week when you’ll be sharing with a few business groups and school parties. You’ll also get a 20 per cent discount. It’s a great place to relax and enjoy the Javanese countryside, feel the cool and watch thousands of swiftlets darting across the tea bushes feeding on insects.

The tea trees may have displaced teak, but the birds are benefiting. And so can you.

(Wonosari is six kilometres west of the Surabaya-Malang road. Turn at Lawang, 30 kilometres north of Malang. Phone 0341 426032.)


A NICE CUPPA CHA

There have been some wonderful inventions in the history of the world. In the top ranks would have to be the S-bend toilet, hot showers, sliced bread – and tea bags.

But who discovered the tea that goes in the bags? There are tens of thousands of different trees on the planet. Did our ancestors go through them one-by-one, dunking the leaves in hot water, and then risking a sip?

It would have been a painstaking and painful process – sometimes fatal. Not all plants are benign. Better to settle for the myths. You have three choices – Chinese, Japanese or Indian.

All have male sages magically or fortuitously encountering the beneficial effects of Camellia sinensis. These yarns should not be taken seriously. How many men ever get involved in tea making? Around the world it’s usually women’s business.

After 5,000 years of tea drinking in China where the tree is a native the idea caught on in the West.

It wasn’t till the 17th century that tea arrived in Europe, but it didn’t become a great success for another century. It was expensive and considered a drink for aristocrats who were supposed to need its medicinal properties.

The British broke the Chinese monopoly by growing tea in India where the tree also grows naturally, and the Dutch followed in Indonesia.

The extra supply created a market among working class people. Tea drinking became part of the English meet-and-greet culture, with all its elaborate rituals of pot warming and brewing, and which serve as conversation starters.

In countries influenced by Britain tea is usually taken with milk (‘white tea’). In Indonesia it’s normally drunk weak and black, usually with heavy doses of sugar, hot or cold.

Cha? That’s English slang for tea and comes from the Mandarin word. Another synonym is ‘China’. Is there a word for coffee? Indeed – ‘Java’.

And the tea bag? That’s supposed to have come about when an American shipper put samples in small silk bags for his buyers and the idea developed. Clearly it suited us down to a T.

(First published in The Jakarta Post 5 January 2007)

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GARBAGE TO CHICKEN FEED

RUBBISH? THAT’S JUST CHICKEN FEED © Duncan Graham 2006

Last May bureaucrats and potential investors of East Java were expecting to get the first local lab figures of an important analysis: Would the results show that chicken food made from Surabaya’s waste would be nutritious and palatable to poultry?

Probably. Hens will eat anything – even each other. But this project – which needs a US $25 million (Rp 20 billion) investment - had to convince people.

“There’s a lot of sceptics in the government particularly in animal husbandry, but I’m pretty optimistic,” said Surabayan businessman Ron Kho. “Once this gets up and running everyone will want to be involved.”

His partner Sam Salpietro from Western Australia, whose company BioCulture is pushing the idea to convert foul refuse into fowl food, was equally upbeat:

“This is the only project that can be considered a viable and commercial operation,” he said. “There’s no need for subsidies or government funding.”

But then the idea hit the speed bumps. Dissatisfied with local lab procedures the partners decided to get another opinion of their product – in Australia.

Sending anything organic into the country next door is difficult enough. When the material is processed trash the problems compound.

“No-one has ever wanted to import rubbish into Australia before,” said Salpietro. “We were told it would be easy – but the bureaucratic problems were incredible.”

Nonetheless they’ve been overcome and six months later the partners have their analysis from the Western Australian government’s chemical laboratory – which they’ll be presenting to potential investors in Surabaya.

The figures certainly look good - like most projections before a factory is built. Every day the folk of Indonesia’s second biggest city produce 3,000 tonnes of rubbish destined for the tip.

The overall quantity is much higher, but efficient scavengers pull tonnes of plastic, glass, wood and other recyclables out of the refuse long before it gets to the landfill.

Now imagine a low-tech process where about half that waste could be converted into chicken pellets that could be sold at a profit. The garbage pits would then last twice as long in a land where space is needed for the living, not their waste.

‘Where there’s muck, there’s money,’ has long been a truism as many millionaires know. If a job is unpleasant people prefer to have someone else get their hands dirty.

In the West those hands are mightily expensive so the costs of processing waste into anything useful is prohibitive. But not in Indonesia.

“There’s no doubt this project can only work in developing countries where labour is cheap,” Kho said. “Most of the work is manual. It requires teams of people sorting through refuse on a moving table and rejecting everything inorganic.

“The foods and plants which do get through will be cooked and processed to remove impurities. Extra nutrients will be added and the mix forced through an extruder to make pellets.”

So far Kho has processed 300 kilograms using manual gear assembled in his paint pigment factory, PT Holland Colours Asia. The extrusion process is much the same so there’s a fit with his present plant. However heating and other controls will need to be adapted.

“We reckon we can make high quality poultry feed for about US $ 75 (Rp 700,000) a tonne when other manufacturers are charging US $250 (Rp 2.25 million) a tonne,” he said.

“So there’s a lot of space to play. We hope existing animal feed companies will want to invest.”

OK so far. Now consider the difficulties: Manufacturers of any product want their raw materials to be of a consistent quality, easily measured. But no two truckloads of rubbish will ever be the same.

And how will the BioCulture managers ensure that every noxious object is spotted and doesn’t make it into the organic waste? Watching rubbish roll by hour upon hour is not a fun pastime, even if the bosses are paying top rupiah for nimble fingers and sharp eyes as they promise to do.

When Mum tosses out her supply of birth control pills because it’s time to start a family and the drugs get into the chicken food, there could be some curious results. Contraceptive hormones in Australian sewage discharged into the sea are already reported to be doing funny things to fish.

Then there’s the danger of transmitting Frankenstein ailments like Mad Cow disease if certain animal products get into the feed. Dead rats seem to be a significant component of Surabaya’s rubbish.

Kho stressed that these and other hazards had been considered. The organic waste would be pasteurised to kill any toxins. Continuous laboratory tests would pick any unforeseens and reject suspect feed.

Magnets would pull out anything metallic and closed circuit TV would monitor every stage. The sorters would work in teams each focussing on only one type of waste. “The end product has to be food quality,” said Salpietro.

The other hurdle is the lack of an up-and-running plant. Potential investors might be more enthusiastic if they could actually see a real banging, clanking, steaming operation rather than a Power Point presentation.

Salpietro acknowledged the problem: “Someone has to be a pioneer. We don’t have the money, but would be prepared to be shareholders. We’ve already spent about AUD $1 million (Rp 7,000 million) and five years to get this far.

“People from all over the world keep coming to Indonesia and saying: ‘We can solve your waste problems.’ They can – but someone has to pay. This system generates income.”

“We expected a 30 per cent organic recovery but in fact the pilot yielded 50 per cent,” Kho said.

“We reckon it will cost about US $20 - $25 million to build a viable plant on about five hectares, and take around 18 months to construct. Capital return should be rapid.

“We’d prefer a joint venture with the government to ensure continuous supplies of waste – maybe around 20 per cent of the capital.

“I don’t normally like dealing with governments but with this project there have been no bribes asked or given.”

(First published in The Jakarta Post Monday 8 January 2007)
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BALIBO FIVE

THE HAUNTING RETURN OF THE BALIBO FIVE
© Duncan Graham 2006

It’s a pity radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir was cleared of wrongdoing by Indonesia’s Supreme Court during Australia’s Silly Season.

This is the normally slow-news period just before Christmas and into the New Year. Politicians, PR hustlers, ambitious academics and other column poachers and airtime thieves are at the beach taking a break from feeding the media with their pontificating and posturing.

The press and TV heavies are also hitting the surf and sand, so minor events often get a run beyond their normal value.

So it has been with the toothy whitebeard skilled in needling his neighbors, even recommending that Prime Minister John Howard take the Haj.

Now that would be news. But in the absence of the Protestant Howard heading for Mecca swathed in white - or any other solid stories - reporters have been asking and getting the predictable responses from victims of the Bali bombs. These are the outrages that Ba’asyir allegedly engineered as spiritual head of the militant group Jemaah Islamiah.

Innocent according to the new legal decision, but guilty in the court of public opinion Down Under. Understandably the badly wounded jurors tend to be deaf to the opinions of more learned commentators. These people, including Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty, remain unsurprised at the court’s decision because the circumstantial evidence used for the conviction was tissue thin.

All this was said before and at length when Ba’asyir was released in June after serving part of a 30-month sentence. But that hasn’t stopped the anger and accusations being recycled when there’s been little else to report apart from sport and bushfires.

Then another Christmas goodie with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer again warning holiday-hunting Aussies to steer clear of the archipelago because they might get bombed.

The State Intelligence Agency BIN reckons no problem, leaving us to think the Aussie spooks know more than the locals – or Australia has another agenda in maintaining travel alerts and talking about unspecified and uncheckable ‘credible threats’.

So here at the end of 2006 we have our long-suffering patient Ms AusIndo Relations sick yet again, with her condition likely to worsen in the next two months.

That’s because a coronial inquest is scheduled early next year to examine the deaths of the Balibo Five.

Many outside the Antipodes will be bemused by this shorthand term that refers to the deaths of five Australian newsmen covering Indonesia’s 1975 invasion of what was then Portuguese Timor.

The unarmed TV crews were allegedly shot dead by the Indonesian military at the border village of Balibo. Their bodies were then burned.

This is an issue that the Australian media has never abandoned. Nor have some of the victims’ families – particularly Shirley Shackleton widow of reporter Greg.

After more than 30 years and numerous inquiries you might expect no new evidence could be forthcoming. Wrong. Information has now become public that didn’t make it into the media during earlier closed-door investigations.

It’s claimed that two Australian officials knew of intercepted radio messages transmitted by the Indonesian Army during the fighting. These allegedly ordered the journalists to be killed.

Till now it has been argued that the men died in crossfire as TNI troops and Fretilin fighters confronted each other – in other words a tragic accident. Few in the Australian media believe this version.

Some of the TNI commanders involved are still alive and likely to be named at the inquest. Not the sort of coverage that will refresh Ms AIR.

In November Australia and Indonesia signed the so-called Lombok Treaty that’s supposed to make sure we all stay mates. Ms AIR’s wounds started to heal – but as many observers have pointed out soothing sounds among politicians doesn’t mean the hearts and minds of the electorate will follow the same song sheet.

Why should Australian taxpayers continue to help Indonesia when some of its military elite allegedly ordered the murder of our young men (all were in their 20s) who were just trying to do their job as neutral observers? (Indonesia ranks number two in Australian aid, behind Papua New Guinea).

And why should voters accept the Australian government’s present intentions when past administrations allegedly knew the killings were willful but put appeasement ahead of confrontation with its overcrowded neighbor?

There’ll be calls for the assassins to be prosecuted if the inquiry finds against them, but of course nothing will happen. If the masterminds behind the September 2004 Garuda airline slaying of local human rights activist Munir are untouchable, there’s no chance the executioners of foreigners three decades ago will ever see the inside of a courtroom.

For Indonesia this is a closed volume. For Australia the page is heavily book marked and the edges dog-eared.

We don’t expect the polygamous Ms AIR to expire – she’s being lavished with lots of top-level care from her two lovers. Unfortunately she doesn’t have too many friends elsewhere to wish her well, and they’re the ones that matter.

So here’s a New Year’s resolution we can all undertake: Let’s make 2007 the year we tone down the slander and make the effort to try and understand each other. In brief – behave like good democratic neighbors, explore a bit of reconciliation and take a breath of fresh air.

(First published in The Jakarta Post 5 January 2007)
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GREENING OF SURABAYA

FROM GARBAGE TO GARDENS: A SURABAYA SOLUTION
© Duncan Graham 2006

Regular readers of these pages may have gained the impression that while Surabaya is economically blooming it’s not exactly a city of flowers. If so, here’s an apology.

Indonesia’s second biggest metropolis is certainly overcrowded and polluted. It’s a port and an industrial center, gray and grimy. The streets are paved with grit, not gold. But it also has charms, made all the more interesting through the virtue of rarity. Here’s a couple.

Kebun Bibit (seed garden) also known as Taman Flora (flower park) is a pretty little tree-studded park close to the city center and an ideal spot for another shopping mall.

That it’s escaped that retail virus is thanks to past city administrations who demonstrated that rare political quality called foresight - and this was long before conservation became an issue. Thirty years ago this area was one big wet hole in the ground, and as all planners know human nature abhors an urban vacuum.

The euphemism ‘sanitary land fill’ has long been used to describe the standard way of quitting trash, so inevitably this spot was designated a rubbish dump. Unusually it later became a welcome patch of green when there was no more space for crushed cans and shredded plastic. Now it’s a two-hectare delight, made even more acceptable by the banning of street vendors and other hustlers.

The Surabaya City Government promotes the East Java capital as a green and clean metropolis. In most suburbs that’s an absurd claim – though not here.

At Kebun Bibit you can sit hassle-free under a canopy of trees from across the archipelago. You’ll be shielded by leaves big and small, every shape and shade of green imaginable plus a few others demonstrating the limitless nature of nature.

Each one labeled with its Latin name, though sadly not with the provenance. This is a place where stressed students and frazzled business folk come to eat their lunch and read reports, though watching furtive young lovers with fumbling fingers seems to be a welcome distraction. The ambience is almost European.

It’s also a venue for concerts and outdoor meetings when the organizers don’t have sponsorship because their cause isn’t fashionable.

Which is why Anita and her colleagues from an activist group used the park for a late celebration of Human Rights Day.

“There’s a real shortage of good locations, particularly near the city center and where access if free,” she said. “This is ideal. We can easily fit 2,000 in this area. This is the right place for us.”

The 13 staff at Kebun Bibit propagate plants, promote medicinal herbs and maintain two hothouses. They’ll chat to you about the plants and their qualities, but they won’t sell their produce; surplus stock goes to help beautify the other city green spots, mostly tissue-sized.

Not to worry because next to the park is Pasar Bunga Bratang (Bratang flower market) Surabaya’s biggest. It has also been built on the land once used to dump rubbish (which was also a swamp) and the rehabilitation has transformed the area. Here’s proof that reclamation does work.

There are many other flower sellers around the city, but they tend to squat on river banks and median strips near open drains giving easy access to water.

Bratang has been purpose-built and it shows. The alleyways are necessarily narrow, but are well paved and clean. Buyers don’t have to wade through mud with the stench of gutters in their nostrils to find their orchid of choice.

The main hazard is bumping into hanging pots or tripping over vines that push their probing tendrils into every empty corner. If it wasn’t for the nearby traffic you could hear the plants growing. For Java is the world’s most fertile island and Bratang a most fecund place. Keep moving or you’ll sprout leaves; this is a real urban jungle.

Subandri, chair of the Bratang Florists’ Association said 200 stallholders operated in the area. Chinese Indonesians were the main buyers of flowers with many favoring European varieties like roses. Although Indonesia has a rich botany, it’s the ornamentals from overseas that get most attention. Another example of cultural cringe?

Small potted plants sold best because they could fit into apartments and back yards, Subandri said. Few people had the space for bushes and trees. These bigger plants usually sold to hotels and property developers.

“The recent boom in real estate has been a great benefit to business,” he said. “There’s new housing going up everywhere, mostly to the west of the city.

“This is a very good spot for us. There’s plenty of parking space and it’s popular with tourists. There’s a bird market next door that also brings in people. Many come just for recreation, but usually end up buying something.”

So next time you’re in the 700 year old city and need a break, try the flower market and the seed garden. No entrance fees, no pressure and best of all is the green.

(First published in The Jakarta Post 5 January 2007)
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ANTI-SMOKING LAWS

FEAR CAMPAIGN FORECAST IN WAR AGAINST SMOKES © Duncan Graham 2007

Indonesian lawmakers and health professionals face a rough, tough fight to tighten the country’s tobacco control laws according to an Australian activist.

Professor Mike Daube, a 33-year international veteran of the battle against smoking, predicted a heavy campaign by the tobacco industry to protect its business.

“They’ll be claiming a loss of freedom of speech and that sporting events and music shows will vanish without their sponsorship,” he told The Jakarta Post.

“Our experience shows that’s just not true. They’ll use all the second-hand arguments that have failed elsewhere in the world. That shows a real contempt for countries like Indonesia.”

Daube, professor of health policy at Western Australia’s Curtin University, was commenting on moves by 220 Indonesian legislators who are trying to butt out tobacco advertising and sponsorship.

The politicians have already been confronted by tobacco industry claims that millions will be thrown out of work if the laws are introduced.

The proposed changes, which include higher taxes and a ban on advertising, are based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Indonesia is the only country in Southeast Asia that has neither signed nor ratified the convention. So far 168 nations have signed and 141 ratified.

Indonesia has a huge tobacco industry employing thousands. How many? Supporters claim five million, but independent researchers have not dissected that figure.

House of Representatives member Hakim Sarimuda Pohan, who chairs the committee drafting the tobacco control bill, has been quoted as saying new laws are needed to stop children smoking.

He claimed that in the past five years there’s been a 900 per cent increase in children under ten smoking.

Indonesia has some of the slackest controls on smoking in the region. Cigarettes are cheap, taxes are low, adverts can be seen almost everywhere, and restrictions on smoking in public are widely ignored. Compulsory health warnings are miniscule.

Thailand insists cigarette packs carry gruesome pictures of the damage smoking can do to the body. Cigarettes can’t be displayed in shops and must be kept under the counter.

Although sales to minors in Indonesia are illegal the law isn’t policed. The sight of schoolboys brazenly smoking in the street is common. There’s even an open trade in tax-free fags, hand-made and sold in roadside eateries in East Java. These sell for around Rp 3,000 (US 30 cents) a packet, less than half the price of legal brands. The tobacco is apparently smuggled out of nearby factories.

According to 2003 research funded by the WHO and the American Cancer Society almost 70 per cent of Indonesian men smoke. The most effective ads link cigarettes with rugged masculinity and being “a real man.”

The good news is that only three per cent of women light up, largely because the culture links smoking to prostitution.

In 1969 the average cigarette consumption in Indonesia was 469 sticks a year. That’s now almost tripled. The death rate from smoking-related diseases is close to 50 per cent, with cancer and heart attacks as the main killers.

Daube was the first director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in the UK in the early 1970s. He moved to Western Australia in 1984 to work for the government and got involved in tobacco control. Later he became CEO of the Cancer Council.

Along with other health professionals he advocated the establishment of a foundation financed by cigarette taxes. This would replace tobacco company sponsorship of sport, the arts, community events, and fund health research. (See sidebar).

Daube said that during his career he’d been served with three writs by tobacco company lobbyists. He alleged that a health minister who later went on the board of a cigarette company blocked his promotion in Britain.

He said tactics used in the past by the tobacco lobby included recruiting financial journalists to run stories claiming controls would trigger business collapses, and “flat earth doctors” denying medical evidence of the health dangers.

He said the argument that tobacco farmers would go bankrupt were false. In Australia growers had shifted to other crops.

Daube claimed the tobacco lobby was now less effective because top professional people were no longer prepared to work for a discredited industry. However the people who were now fighting against controls were probably “tougher and nastier.”

“Tobacco companies are immoral and evil,” he said. “Smoking kills about half the known users. It’s responsible for about ten per cent of global deaths.

“The industry will claim it has a right to advertise because there’s no scientific proof that advertising encourages people to start smoking, and that the product is legal.

“Newspapers and magazines will protest that they’ll lose revenue. Sports administrators will say games will suffer. We’ve heard all these claims before and seen them refuted.

“Politicians, doctors and other health workers really have to get their act together and fight this menace. There needs to be a coalition of health organizations and professionals, and sports stars.

“In Australia the involvement of doctors in anti-smoking campaigns has been critical.

“Sadly I’m told that up to 30 per cent of Indonesian doctors smoke. There’s no better ad for cigarettes than a doctor who smokes.”

SMOKES PAY FOR SPORTS

A scheme devised by Australian doctors 20 years ago to combat tobacco sponsorship of sport and culture has proved so successful it’s now being applied in Malaysia, Thailand and some European countries.

In Western Australia it’s know as Healthway, an independent organization funded by tobacco taxes. Last year it collected AUD $17 million (Rp 122 billion). This was used to sponsor sports and cultural events, conduct research and promote healthy lifestyles.

Executive director Neil Guard said that when Healthway started in 1990 about 25 per cent of adults in WA were regular smokers. That figure had now dropped to 15.5 per cent.

“Healthway has played a significant role in helping achieve this outstanding result in tobacco control,” he said.

“The key areas are advocacy, the creation of smoke-free environments, public awareness and education programs, support for smokers wanting to quit and prevention of people taking up smoking.

“Also important is research into new ways of tobacco control, and legislation to restrict smoking in public places and the sale of tobacco products.”

This year the WA government banned smoking indoors in hotels, restaurants and nightclubs, despite being confronted by claims that patrons would stay at home and businesses would collapse.

The hospitality industry is now opening outdoor eating and drinking areas to cater for smokers. Another factor in promoting change has been successful legal action by sick employees against companies that allow smoking in the workplace.

Guard said the creation of smoke-free areas at sporting and music events was a critical factor in lowering tobacco use.

Getting public support for anti-smoking laws was important. When tobacco advertising bans and other controls were proposed, surveys showed the public was prepared to tolerate higher “virtuous taxes” if these were used to help sport and culture.

Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore impose tobacco taxes starting at 70 per cent. The Indonesian rate is 31.5 per cent. Although prices will increase next March by up to Rp 7 a stick, smokes in Indonesia are around one fifth of the cost of those sold in nearby countries.

Guard said organizations that wanted Healthway sponsorship had to make the event smoke free and had to advertise a healthy lifestyle.

Before the law was changed cigarette companies claimed they were spending big amounts on helping sport, music and culture. However research revealed the donations were small.

Healthway had to pay only AUD $2.5 million (Rp 18 billion) to buy out cigarette sponsors of sporting and cultural events when the forecast was for almost four times that sum.

“Sport and the arts are doing much better with Healthway sponsorship than they ever did with cigarette companies,” he said. “They get more money with fewer restrictions.”

(Sidebar 2)

CREATING A CLEAN IMAGE

Not surprisingly tobacco companies don’t like being portrayed as purveyors of poisons and killers of citizens. So they try to boost their image by seeming to be socially responsible. A popular campaign is to clean up the environment – a cause that seldom attracts sponsors.

Ironically the tobacco industry is responsible for creating garbage like cigarette butts and packaging.

In Indonesia Sampoerna, now owned by the US giant Philip Morris, has sponsored signs urging people not to litter. In Australia British American Tobacco is behind the seemingly benign Butt Littering Trust.

This educates smokers in thoughtfully disposing of their fags and includes giving people little canisters they can use as personal ashtrays. It ignores the fact that people who don’t smoke don’t produce butts.

Activists say Australians flick away 18 billion non-biodegradable cigarette butts every year. Not all are dead. Careless smokers start more than 4,500 bush and home fires.

The trust claims it is independent, but critics say it’s wholly funded by BAT that has a representative on the board.

Another ploy is to fund educational institutions and scholarships. These are illegal in many countries when the company uses its own name or the name of a product.

So the Sampoerna Foundation, which gives the company the profile of a good corporate citizen, could not function under that title elsewhere because it would be seen as advertising.

(First published in The Jakarta Post 3 January 2007)

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