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| Indonesian Media Misunderstands Village Life |
| [Commentary] A case of a rural community in the east of the country |
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Nurhady Sirimorok (nurhadys)  |
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Published 2007-11-30 10:32 (KST) |
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| This article was only lightly edited. <Editor's Note> |
Dirty, poor and less-educated. This is the typical portrayal of villagers appearing in mainstream media in Indonesia. The reporters from mainstream media tend to simplify the real conditions of the villages, telling the story from their urban perspectives. The image chosen and presented by media indeed could lead the audiences to an incorrect perception. While in reality, villagers' lives are more complicated.
Here is an example. In mid 2002, a friend of mine asked me to bring recycled clothes to a rural group of people she called "To Balo" (lit: blemished-skin people). Apparently, she was touched by a program on a private TV station broadcasting a featured-program of the community that "lives in a mountainous village in the District of Barru," referring to a district within South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| "They looked terrible. They wore dirty clothes," said she.
Based on my experiences on various rural development programs, I do believe that what the villagers really need is not recycled clothes sent by people living in big cities. Sadly, that is what most urban citizens have in mind, just like what happened to my friend: the villagers, those "dirty people," need proper clothes.
Just how did these perspectives take shape?
Using a single perspective -- the eye of modern society -- journalists portray the life of villagers. There are few concrete facts facts in these reports because reporters usually take just a half-day or a day trip while reporting from rural areas. They usually are accompanied by a university student who knows a little bit about the village. Their story about the community comes mostly from this outsider.
Then what is the real story behind the "dirty people" my friend was asking about?
They live in a hamlet, not in the whole village. Like other villages (desa) in Indonesia, this village is an administratively (forced) divided area, called Desa Bulo-Bulo and it consist of several hamlet (dusun). The people who live there call themselves according to which dusun they come from (To [person from] Lappa Temmu, To Maroangin, and so on). They do not call themselves To Balo, in fact, they are relatively ashamed of being called To balo, sometimes it is even insulting to them.
The population of the village according to September 2002 statistics is 1,551, and the white-spotted ones confined to only nine persons. So the village not only inhabited by spotted people, as always hyperbolized by the media, and consequently cannot be considered the 'To Balo community' as it called first by the scholars, and later popularized by the media.
The media is not solely to blame for these misconceptions. Many other city people come to villages in search of problems: namely academics, government officials, and NGO front-liners; among these, researchers are the most intensive and systematic ones.
There are countless reports, master's and doctoral thesis's about villages, which spread and influence the way of thinking of city people in seeing the villages. Gradually, people in urban areas consider themselves "superior," and the villagers believe that they are "inferior."
In a focus group discussion, a group of senior high school students from 10 schools in South Sulawesi Province were asked: "What images cross your mind when hearing the word 'peasant'?" Most students replied: poor, stupid, dirty, and other similar statements.
Thus, what actually has taken place was that image of village has been painted, and the moment when they watch the screen on feature of To Balo is only serve as a confirmation to the assumption they already uncritically swallowed.
Now, going back to the question, do they really need used clothes?
The head of the Desa Bulo-bulo, where the To Balo live once stated his irritation that the city people always visiting the village bringing along their used clothes -- and even in some occasions, the clothes were not in a wearable condition. He confirmed that, "They shouldn't have to worry bringing used clothes to our village. We still have plenty of them."
If the villagers' physical appearance looks 'worn-out' for the city people, it is understandable. The villagers are farmers, their daily life is full of agricultural activities, and of course, it is ridiculous to wear clean and tidy clothes on their daily activities in the farm and field.
A farmer complained in his local language, which can translated roughly as: "The city people always see us as dirty people because we always smeared with mud. They do not realize that they have food in the cities because we, the villagers, wallow with soil and mud."
On the other hand, city people, in many of their activities, by convention must wear clean and tidy clothes in offices, schools, or department stores, even on the street.
In short, people in urban areas and the villagers live in two different cultures.
To complete the cycle, urbanization has intensified. A year ago, the hamlet closest to the city began receiving TV broadcasts. Road construction is underway, and electric poles are being planted.
It would be interesting to follow how the people in Desa Bulo-Bulo face the siege of urban lifestyle. Will the media become a gift or a disaster? Will they, in a lively group, throw down their hoes and chopping knives and move to cities to work as shopkeepers or house cleaners, as is already the case for many of their generation?
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©2007 OhmyNews
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