UGM PIKA organized a UGM & KAGAMA Synergy talk show for the 3rd series on Sunday (23/8) afternoon. The talk show this time raised the theme “Building a Resilient Community in the Era of Adaptation to New Habits.”
The keynote speaker, namely Dr. Pujo Semedi, H.Y., M.A., stated that the resilience of a community unit does not suddenly exist. This occurrence comes from a long history of the construction of human relations with the environment and the human itself.
“Resilient households are households that do not get stuck when they experience pagebluk, or socio-economic pressure or disasters, do not necessarily get stuck. Even though it causes a decline in income and consumption, they can still survive and own the power to recover,” explained the UGM Anthropology lecturer.
Pujo then illustrates one form of toughness from his previous research in Petungkriyono, Pekalongan. In 1984 when he first came there, he found that most of the population worked in agriculture. Then at that time, he was also encountering food shortages so that many communities harvested rice rash because it ran out of food. They also use other plants such as tales, gembili, and canna as emergency food.
Pujo also highlighted that most people at his age had many stepchildren. Specifically, he mentioned it was normal to marry more than once there. In that decade, he explained the household survival rate reached 30 percent of 100 marriages, a third of whom were divorced. According to him, that was the description of the farmer household’s resilience in Petungkriyono.
Pujo explained that this number started to increase when people began to adopt cattle raising. This result is in response to the increase in people’s purchasing power and consumption since the early 1980s. At the same time, he said that farmers also started to adopt superior seeds with abundant yields. Road paving from Doro to Petungkriyono is also an enhancing factor because it opens for people to work in the city, precisely in the service and industrial sectors.
“When he returned in the 2000s, Pentungkriyono’s household economic pattern had changed. The economy, which was formerly supported by a single source in cultivating food and vegetable crops, is now the fork economy of telu (three pillars). The three are cultivating food crops, raising cattle, and working in the industrial and service sectors,” he explained.
Pujo said that this economic pattern had succeeded in changing the village’s reputation from initially retarded to be well-off. The villagers now live in walled houses with clean tiled floors, tin roofs, have televisions, rice cookers, gadgets, motorbikes, and each home has its bathroom and toilet.
Besides, based on 2014 data, the divorce rate in Petungkriyono is lower than 40 years ago. Based on the data, from 129 marriages, there were 24 divorces, so the figure was around 18.6 percent. This data indicates that the survival rate of the household is higher now.
Pujo explained that socio-economic resilience in Petung was not only touched by ecological and economic relations, but also by political-economic associations. It is in the form of social concepts and initiatives to determine who has rights over whom, what resources, how much it costs, and how the practice is. The idea is brayan and sakpada-pada.
“Brayan is a concept where every citizen has a similar social right to enjoy what other citizens can enjoy. The application is by raising cows or a profit-sharing system to care for cows between neighbors. Meanwhile, sakpada-pada is a view of social and political position, which is considered equal among fellow citizens. If there were a difference in position, it would only last temporarily. This condition happened in the choice of the head of the village,” he explained.
These two concepts function to prevent the accumulation of political-economic power in one citizen and make other citizens lose access to the factors of production and the arena of speech (determining what is necessary, what is good for the lives of the multitude). Thus, it can build their socio-economic resilience.
Furthermore, Pujo stated that in the current pandemic condition. He had asked the residents in Petungkriyono about the circumstances, but it turned out that they had experienced difficulties. That’s because they can’t work for a while. However, after Eid, they returned to work, and conditions returned to normal.
Therefore, Pujo stated that the lessons from Petungkriyono could also be applied in other regions to increase socio-economic resilience. “The atmosphere and citizens’ ability to prevent the accumulation of power should be maintained and emulated. The concept of brayan sakpada-pada is a form of a simple expression from our five Pancasila precepts about social justice. The two lessons may be able to build the social and economic resilience of the little people, both in normal and pandemic conditions,” he ordered.
Ganjar Pranowo, the Governor of Central Java, also confirmed Pujo’s explanation. In dealing with this pandemic in Central Java, he also found many local ideas when conducting surveys in some areas. Finally, he said that he found an idea with a local nuance, namely, Jogo Tonggo.
“We could find a point between top-down and bottom-up policymaking with the help of local community leaders through Jogo Tonggo. If it is difficult to manage it, it will empower people to remind each other. Even though it doesn’t run well in all areas, we still encourage it to recover it,” explained the Head of PP KAGAMA.
Finally, Ganjar stated that if we cannot control something in unison based on his experience, we can still run the essential point, which is locality-based creation and innovation. That, according to him, includes innovations from KAGAMA friends, such as canthelan and sonjo. Such ideas are what he thinks we must strengthen.
“This pandemic will not just end here. It might be possible to reappear. However, a pandemic is a valuable lesson for all of us because the pandemic has become a significant research site and a place for various parties to reorganize on a large scale,” Ganjar concluded.
Author: Hakam
Translator: Natasa A