TC:10:00:00:00People in rubbish dump
Dumped... life doesn't get much lower than this.They are not the first to survive on the waste of others, but here, at the Bantar Gebang rubbish tip outside Jakarta, it’s a stark and stinking illustration of Indonesia's economic crisis.Four years ago, about two thousand people lived off the dump, now its more than six thousand and growing daily.
TC 10:00:27Alex Sukarno pulling cart through rubbish dump
Among them is Alex Sukarno. Until last year he had a relatively well-paid job working as a mechanic for a French surveying company. But they pulled out of the country and now he's on the scrap heap.
TC:10:00:38Alex SukarnoVoice overlay - Alex - picking through rubbishTranslation:“If I don't do this kind of work my wife and kids won’t eat, so I am forced to do it. Whatever it takes. Sometimes when I take a break all I can do is sit and cry.”
TC 10:00:58
Alex has now been here for a month.
TC:10:01:02ASTON: Alex Sukarno, former mechanicTranslation:“I look on this work as temporary, at the moment there isn't any other work. But once I get a better job, as soon as I find other work, I'll move on.”
TC 10:01:14
But to where? He'll be lucky to find another job in this increasingly polarised society, where the gulf between rich and poor is ever wider.
TC 10:01:22Dissolve to lift descending in smart shopping centreActuality music - move from piano keyboard to pianist
The plush shopping malls, built in the boom years of the early nineties, are still the place to be seen by the well to do.
TC:10:01:43Over the head of pianist
These people have three decades of economic growth to thank President Suharto for, but their wealth is disappearing fast.
TC: 10:01:54Poster in town, downtown scenes, road-side stalls
Cash dominates the downtown posters, economic prosperity under President Suharto, but the reality is that Indonesia's economic crisis is deepening. The rupiah has lost eighty percent of its value in just a few months. Inflation is rampant, and few can afford to buy even the simplest foods.
TC:10:02:14Alex going home, washing dirt off shoes
For Alex it is continuous humiliation... each day returning home to his tiny shack beside the rubbish dump. He tries to wash away what’s become of his life.He and his wife live here separated from their children, who’ve been sent to stay with their grandparents in the country.He misses them and his former expatriate work-mates.
TC:10:02:46Alex looking at photos of former life, move up from photos to Alex in visionTC 10: 02:54Sync. Alex SukarnoTranslation:“I regret - I have enjoyed a good life, I had a fine job before. I also regret that I have to do this job that I am doing now. It makes me so sad, I can hardly bear to look at the pictures.
TC:10:03:06 Pan across Jakarta to “The Independence Mosque”
If most Indonesians have lost faith in their economy, they always have their religion to fall back on.
TC:10:03:18Praying in mosque - lines of hundreds
TC:10:03:24Pan right to left over prayers
Two hundred million people make Indonesia the fourth most populated country in the world and 80% of the population are Muslim.
TC:10:03:36Girl at local mosque - food distribution
At this mosque in downtown Jakarta free food packages donated by a Chinese-owned bank are handed out - an attempt to bridge a growing and potentially explosive divide that’s opening up between the majority Indonesians and the ethnic Chinese.
TC:10:03:55APTV Archive (Cleared)Shopkeepers spraying “Muslim” on the shop fronts.
In villages of central Java Muslim traders spray-paint their religious identity on their shops.They don’t want rioters to mistake them for their Chinese neighbours.
TC:10:04:06APTV Archive (Cleared)Looting of Chinese shops
Chinese shopkeepers, accused of hoarding goods, are looted - in front of Indonesian police officers.The Chinese, only five percent of the population, dominate 70% of Indonesian business. So many Indonesians blame them for the unemployment and inflation.
TC 10:04:22Chinese people in police station
As their businesses and homes are destroyed, local Chinese take refuge in police stations.
TC:10:04:30NO ASTONChinese woman (in vision at 10:04:34)Translation:“I hid myself in the housemaid’s toilet because I just wanted to save myself and my children.”TC:10:04:38NO ASTONRioter“This has happened because the prices have gone up. The prices have been increased by them. (group around him clap) The Indonesian economy is dominated by them - the Chinese.”
TC:10:04:54Freeway, high-rise buildings.
Modern Indonesia hides a dark recent history of ethnic divide - the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Chinese thirty years ago.
TC 10:05:03Girl standing by railway track as train passes (she sticks her tongue out)Makeshift dwellings by tracks
But scratch the surface and an entirely different picture emerges... on the other side of the tracks, especially amongst the poor and the dispossessed, the old prejudices are re-emerging.
TC:10:05:14Idris Mohammed walking through streets - stopping to talk to people
Idris Mohammed, like all civic officials, is a member of President Suharto’s Golkar Party. His responsibility is one of the poorest inner city areas of Jakarta. These people are part of a massive movement of recent immigrants who arrive in Jakarta daily, desperate for work, or at the very least, the basic means of survival. They are economic refugees from the countryside where prolonged drought and economic hardship has forced them off the land.Traditionally rural Indonesians carry the greatest hatred for the ethnic Chinese, a hatred that Idris Mohammed knows only too well, takes the pressure off his boss. President Suharto.
TC 10:05:56ASTON: Idris Mohammed, Local CouncillorTranslation:“Because of the price increases people’s anger against the Chinese is increasing. The Chinese themselves have been playing foul with the goods every day. They’re increasing the prices of their goods. Because they have been hoarding the goods the people’s anger against the Chinese has increased. Their influence is bad, because they are not Indonesia’s native businessmen. If the economy were to be run by Indonesians it would be better.”
TC:10:06:20University campus, lecture hall
In the universities of Indonesia, students have put the blame for the economy and the rising ethnic tensions firmly on President Suharto and his government.
TC 10:06:35Meeting of forum
Students lead the anti-government protests but, today, some former students have come here to Bandung university to open a new forum for change in this troubled country.
TC 10:06:44Enin Sustrino at meeting
Among them Enin Sustrino, a former Chinese student activist who has spent three years in jail for his anti-Suharto activities.
TC:10:06:49Enin playing guitar - singing with friends
TC 10:06:55
Enin sees himself as part of a new emerging class of young Indonesian professionals whose ethnic backgrounds are barely relevant. Yet he still fears being arrested and beaten up, not for his beliefs but for his ethnic background.
TC: 10:07:10ASTON: Enin Sustrino, jailed for three years.English:“If that kind of thing happens to me just because of my political beliefs, I can still accept that. But if that kind of things, bad things happens to me just because I am Chinese, that will be hard to accept. I mean I keep saying to myself, ‘if I keep thinking about myself completely or exclusively as Chinese then I will make a similar mistake in terms of keeping this racist way of thinking in my own head’... So, it doesn’t make sense.”
TC:10:07:54Boy and fountain, Suharto billboardPeople crossing road
According to G7 officials, if President Suharto does not introduce radical economic reforms, his country is heading for a social and economic breakdown.But few believe that President Suharto has the political support he needs to carry out the painful economic reforms the international community is asking for.
TC 10:08:17Doctor Hermawan Sulistyo driving
Doctor Hermawan Sulistyo is a US-educated economist employed as a senior civil servant at a government think tank. His political masters asked him to investigate the causes of the current crisis. As a result of what his research has revealed, he has decided to give his first television interview. His employers won’t like his conclusions.
TC: 10:08:41ASTON: Doctor Hermawan Sulistyo, civil servant, researcherEnglish:“We solve the source of the problem that is the national leadership. We change the president, we change the elite, the cabinet and all the elite now, with a new clean government. That is the source of the problem. There is no way to stop these situations and then it becomes riots, mass riots, everywhere. Just wait and see. It’s more dangerous because there is no organised unrest, organised riots, quote unquote, because there is no strong opposition leader. If you don’t have any strong leader on the streets, then you can’t control a million hungry people looting around.”
10:09:34Rubbish dumps
Damning words from a government employee. President Suharto’s options are narrowing. Can he tell people who have nothing to eat to tighten their belts? Can he persuade people who have nothing at all they’ll have to have less. And how do you tell Alex that he’ll have to spend even more time pulling his cart through the mud, for the sake of his country?
TC 10:09:58
Sign-offMartin Adler, Insight News Television, Indonesia.
TC 10:10:03 ENDS
Dumped... life doesn't get much lower than this.They are not the first to survive on the waste of others, but here, at the Bantar Gebang rubbish tip outside Jakarta, it’s a stark and stinking illustration of Indonesia's economic crisis.Four years ago, about two thousand people lived off the dump, now its more than six thousand and growing daily.
TC 10:00:27Alex Sukarno pulling cart through rubbish dump
Among them is Alex Sukarno. Until last year he had a relatively well-paid job working as a mechanic for a French surveying company. But they pulled out of the country and now he's on the scrap heap.
TC:10:00:38Alex SukarnoVoice overlay - Alex - picking through rubbishTranslation:“If I don't do this kind of work my wife and kids won’t eat, so I am forced to do it. Whatever it takes. Sometimes when I take a break all I can do is sit and cry.”
TC 10:00:58
Alex has now been here for a month.
TC:10:01:02ASTON: Alex Sukarno, former mechanicTranslation:“I look on this work as temporary, at the moment there isn't any other work. But once I get a better job, as soon as I find other work, I'll move on.”
TC 10:01:14
But to where? He'll be lucky to find another job in this increasingly polarised society, where the gulf between rich and poor is ever wider.
TC 10:01:22Dissolve to lift descending in smart shopping centreActuality music - move from piano keyboard to pianist
The plush shopping malls, built in the boom years of the early nineties, are still the place to be seen by the well to do.
TC:10:01:43Over the head of pianist
These people have three decades of economic growth to thank President Suharto for, but their wealth is disappearing fast.
TC: 10:01:54Poster in town, downtown scenes, road-side stalls
Cash dominates the downtown posters, economic prosperity under President Suharto, but the reality is that Indonesia's economic crisis is deepening. The rupiah has lost eighty percent of its value in just a few months. Inflation is rampant, and few can afford to buy even the simplest foods.
TC:10:02:14Alex going home, washing dirt off shoes
For Alex it is continuous humiliation... each day returning home to his tiny shack beside the rubbish dump. He tries to wash away what’s become of his life.He and his wife live here separated from their children, who’ve been sent to stay with their grandparents in the country.He misses them and his former expatriate work-mates.
TC:10:02:46Alex looking at photos of former life, move up from photos to Alex in visionTC 10: 02:54Sync. Alex SukarnoTranslation:“I regret - I have enjoyed a good life, I had a fine job before. I also regret that I have to do this job that I am doing now. It makes me so sad, I can hardly bear to look at the pictures.
TC:10:03:06 Pan across Jakarta to “The Independence Mosque”
If most Indonesians have lost faith in their economy, they always have their religion to fall back on.
TC:10:03:18Praying in mosque - lines of hundreds
TC:10:03:24Pan right to left over prayers
Two hundred million people make Indonesia the fourth most populated country in the world and 80% of the population are Muslim.
TC:10:03:36Girl at local mosque - food distribution
At this mosque in downtown Jakarta free food packages donated by a Chinese-owned bank are handed out - an attempt to bridge a growing and potentially explosive divide that’s opening up between the majority Indonesians and the ethnic Chinese.
TC:10:03:55APTV Archive (Cleared)Shopkeepers spraying “Muslim” on the shop fronts.
In villages of central Java Muslim traders spray-paint their religious identity on their shops.They don’t want rioters to mistake them for their Chinese neighbours.
TC:10:04:06APTV Archive (Cleared)Looting of Chinese shops
Chinese shopkeepers, accused of hoarding goods, are looted - in front of Indonesian police officers.The Chinese, only five percent of the population, dominate 70% of Indonesian business. So many Indonesians blame them for the unemployment and inflation.
TC 10:04:22Chinese people in police station
As their businesses and homes are destroyed, local Chinese take refuge in police stations.
TC:10:04:30NO ASTONChinese woman (in vision at 10:04:34)Translation:“I hid myself in the housemaid’s toilet because I just wanted to save myself and my children.”TC:10:04:38NO ASTONRioter“This has happened because the prices have gone up. The prices have been increased by them. (group around him clap) The Indonesian economy is dominated by them - the Chinese.”
TC:10:04:54Freeway, high-rise buildings.
Modern Indonesia hides a dark recent history of ethnic divide - the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Chinese thirty years ago.
TC 10:05:03Girl standing by railway track as train passes (she sticks her tongue out)Makeshift dwellings by tracks
But scratch the surface and an entirely different picture emerges... on the other side of the tracks, especially amongst the poor and the dispossessed, the old prejudices are re-emerging.
TC:10:05:14Idris Mohammed walking through streets - stopping to talk to people
Idris Mohammed, like all civic officials, is a member of President Suharto’s Golkar Party. His responsibility is one of the poorest inner city areas of Jakarta. These people are part of a massive movement of recent immigrants who arrive in Jakarta daily, desperate for work, or at the very least, the basic means of survival. They are economic refugees from the countryside where prolonged drought and economic hardship has forced them off the land.Traditionally rural Indonesians carry the greatest hatred for the ethnic Chinese, a hatred that Idris Mohammed knows only too well, takes the pressure off his boss. President Suharto.
TC 10:05:56ASTON: Idris Mohammed, Local CouncillorTranslation:“Because of the price increases people’s anger against the Chinese is increasing. The Chinese themselves have been playing foul with the goods every day. They’re increasing the prices of their goods. Because they have been hoarding the goods the people’s anger against the Chinese has increased. Their influence is bad, because they are not Indonesia’s native businessmen. If the economy were to be run by Indonesians it would be better.”
TC:10:06:20University campus, lecture hall
In the universities of Indonesia, students have put the blame for the economy and the rising ethnic tensions firmly on President Suharto and his government.
TC 10:06:35Meeting of forum
Students lead the anti-government protests but, today, some former students have come here to Bandung university to open a new forum for change in this troubled country.
TC 10:06:44Enin Sustrino at meeting
Among them Enin Sustrino, a former Chinese student activist who has spent three years in jail for his anti-Suharto activities.
TC:10:06:49Enin playing guitar - singing with friends
TC 10:06:55
Enin sees himself as part of a new emerging class of young Indonesian professionals whose ethnic backgrounds are barely relevant. Yet he still fears being arrested and beaten up, not for his beliefs but for his ethnic background.
TC: 10:07:10ASTON: Enin Sustrino, jailed for three years.English:“If that kind of thing happens to me just because of my political beliefs, I can still accept that. But if that kind of things, bad things happens to me just because I am Chinese, that will be hard to accept. I mean I keep saying to myself, ‘if I keep thinking about myself completely or exclusively as Chinese then I will make a similar mistake in terms of keeping this racist way of thinking in my own head’... So, it doesn’t make sense.”
TC:10:07:54Boy and fountain, Suharto billboardPeople crossing road
According to G7 officials, if President Suharto does not introduce radical economic reforms, his country is heading for a social and economic breakdown.But few believe that President Suharto has the political support he needs to carry out the painful economic reforms the international community is asking for.
TC 10:08:17Doctor Hermawan Sulistyo driving
Doctor Hermawan Sulistyo is a US-educated economist employed as a senior civil servant at a government think tank. His political masters asked him to investigate the causes of the current crisis. As a result of what his research has revealed, he has decided to give his first television interview. His employers won’t like his conclusions.
TC: 10:08:41ASTON: Doctor Hermawan Sulistyo, civil servant, researcherEnglish:“We solve the source of the problem that is the national leadership. We change the president, we change the elite, the cabinet and all the elite now, with a new clean government. That is the source of the problem. There is no way to stop these situations and then it becomes riots, mass riots, everywhere. Just wait and see. It’s more dangerous because there is no organised unrest, organised riots, quote unquote, because there is no strong opposition leader. If you don’t have any strong leader on the streets, then you can’t control a million hungry people looting around.”
10:09:34Rubbish dumps
Damning words from a government employee. President Suharto’s options are narrowing. Can he tell people who have nothing to eat to tighten their belts? Can he persuade people who have nothing at all they’ll have to have less. And how do you tell Alex that he’ll have to spend even more time pulling his cart through the mud, for the sake of his country?
TC 10:09:58
Sign-offMartin Adler, Insight News Television, Indonesia.
TC 10:10:03 ENDS