The Abyss Between Us: Batagor and Inequality in Indonesia

Batagor is an Indonesian dish that originated from my hometown, Bandung, in West Java. It is, in essence, a fried dumpling dish with fish filling served with peanut sauce. A go-to snack for all ranges of people, because it is cheap and delicious. Including school kids, as you can buy the dumplings in single pieces or a bigger portion, which can fit into school-children’s allowance budget for a quick after-school treat.

© Shutterstock

I came from a convenient upper-middle-class (or maybe even high-class) family, and my father, as the sole breadwinner, could send me to an expensive Christian private school in my town. Even though the school could be categorized as elite, you could still find a Batagor street vendor right at the entrance gate of the school. I remembered that with around 5,000 Rupiahs (around 25 cents) I could get 4 pieces of Batagor that would fill me up during the school break. The street vendor quickly became my family’s favorite. Asep, the street vendor, had really mastered his craft in creating fresh and delicious Batagor over the years. As school years went by, my friends and I graduated from school and spread around the globe (including me) to pursue our dreams, supported by our wealthy families. Asep was still giving his best effort every day to sell his Batagor. Even ten years later, when I flew back home and visited my alma mater for nostalgia, he was still there, selling the same delicious Batagor (although slightly more expensive due to inflation), on the same cart, at the same spot, where I left school a decade ago, all while I had finished two degrees in Germany, started a decent job in Munich, the most expensive city in Germany, and was building a wonderful life here as an expat. How more contrast could it be?

The anecdote above, while many may have found the story nostalgic, I found it tragic and may represent the systemic failure in Indonesia. Narratives that indoctrinate people to master their “craft” and work hard to be wealthy and successful are shown to be half-true at best in Asep’s case. As nobody could deny that Asep had already done all that, there were many more things that he could not influence directly to be more successful. And here is where the government should have stepped in. Asep, and also the majority of Indonesians, work in the informal sector (around 60% of the workforce in Indonesia). It means they are vulnerable to financial setbacks such as illness and sudden loss of income. These setbacks may bring them to bankruptcy and do not give them financial stability. Not to mention, the reality that many lower-income families have more children to feed, thus putting a significantly higher financial burden on the breadwinner of the family, which at the same time limits their ability to have savings and financial plans for themselves, since almost all income had to be used to feed their big family, including the family from their second or third ring, as it is also common in lower-income-class households to have several family units living under the same roof. All this socio-economic burden does not exist in higher-income families such as mine. This gives us more opportunities to explore our choices. The situation today has only worsened, as the middle class of Indonesia has kept shrinking, and the lower-income families experienced massive lay-offs due to bad economic decisions by President Subianto. Even though Asep and I used to be several meters away from each other, there is actually an abyss of inequality between us.

His ability to close the gap kept being taken away, all while the MPs showed off their extravagant salary and lifestyles using his tax money, which he earned with blood and sweat. This also sparked the amok and anger of Indonesians after witnessing the killing of Affan Kurniawan, an honest working man who was brutally murdered by police—such an irony. He had nowhere to go, and they still rolled him over—a perfect symbol of the frustration felt by many Indonesians right now. We in Sagonese believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg of corruption, incompetence, and trickery that have run our country for decades. The long-awaited “reformation” seems not to bear fruit at the moment. But losing hope is also useless. We will try to raise awareness and contribute at our end to make life for millions of other Aseps and Affan better. So that honesty, competence, and hard work are finally rewarded again in Indonesia and not punished.

Author:

Evan Yonathan is a cybersecurity and data privacy specialist based in Munich. He works at a financial institution, ensuring that sensitive information is safeguarded and data protection standards meet EU regulations.