The Resolution: A Mediated Negotiation

UPP Facilitators had trained BKM Yosorejo’s members for community-level planning. From the beginning, BKM realized that they needed to involve the factory to resolve the flooding problem.

Creating an alternative drainage system circling the factory site would exhaust all of BKM’s very limited resources, which they received as UPP money from the national government.³¹ One solution proposed at a BKM meeting was to restore the three drains that had not been functioning since the factory started its operations. Since the drains were part of the factory’s property, BKM needed to approach the factory managers to persuade them to accept the idea. Feeling like they had less of a bargaining position, they sought patronage from the Lurah. This process led to a series of Lurah-mediated negotiations between BKM and the factory.

31 A typical neighborhood sewer drain would provide water clearance of 60 centimeters wide and 80 centimeters deep. To be reasonably durable, it needs to be built with concrete mix, and typically would cost Rp. 100,000 (US$10) per meter. The drains span around 40 meters long, all three of them totaling into 117 meters of drains.

Construction cost (excluding labor) would cost around Rp. 15 million (US$ 1,500). The total construction cost for the drain reached Rp. 54 million. (LPJ RWT Rejo Makmur, 31 March 2009). In this community of underemployed people, that amount of money was considered excessive. Yosorejo’s residents are typically working as on-call labors. They only work seasonally as kuli bangunan (construction workers), kuli panggul (manual lifters), or seasonal paddy harvesters (PJM Pronangkis Kelurahan Yosorejo 2007–2009).

59 Map 5: Yosorejo Situation Map.

The lines with arrows show the three drain restored by BKM in 2008. The box shows the location of the Kelurahan’s office. BKM also uses this office for its daily operations.

Source: BKM Yosorejo’s Internal Document

60 It took numerous meetings to reach a settlement. BKM’sfirst solution (to create a drain circling the factory’s site) was financially unfeasible: If the drain was built around the factory’s existing site, the factory would need to buy the surrounding land. The drain would also be much longer than it was necessary and this length would increase construction cost. The factory, after a significant amount of time, agreed to restore the drains that were earthed during the factory’s construction (BKM’s second solution).³²

The restored drain than would cross-sect the factory’s site. BKM saw this as a win-win solution that would solve the problem in a relatively inexpensive manner. BKM could not afford to buy the land or construction if the factory did not cooperate. The factory’s willingness to dedicate a portion of their land in an urban setting for the project was seen as “generous enough,” so they could continue with the plan to restore the indigenous drains. When BKM and the factory reached a settlement, the Department of Public Work (Pekerjaan Umum, PU) agreed to allocate funding for construction of a road above the drain’s outlet next to the factory’s wall, significantly reducing the cost born by BKM.

Lurah Satro Amijoyo’s personal relationship with the factory’s general manager, as he claimed, was a very helpful asset for him to negotiate with them. The factory manager was an ex military officer who turned to be a government official as the head of state-run traditional market. When he retired, he was appointed the factory’s general manager.³³ Lurah Satro Amijoyo gave enough pressure to the factory in a very “soft” manner. He warned the factory general manager that local people could be very

“shortsighted” and “narrow minded”, and when an aggressive collective action is held against the

32 They reached settlement on 17 December 2008 (indicated by the Memorandum of Understanding). Both Lurah Satro Amijoyo and BKM members did not specify the time-span of this negotiation. They hastily recalled that it took more than necessary and that it involved frequent meeting. In the Javanese community, sense of time is not as accurate compared with Western society. Typically the true meaning of a time frame in verbal

communication is longer than the pronounced one. When a local mentioned that an event occurred “yesterday,”

it typically means that it happened in the relatively short past, possibly around less than a week or a month ago.

When Lurah Satro Amijoyo and BKM members mentioned that this process took a long time, the time-span may be even longer than 6 months or one year. However, I am, of course, speculating.

33 Lurah Satro Amijoyo correctly commented that it was really common for the New Order’s regime to give military officials privileges to assume civil public positions.

61 factory, they would not be able to bear the cost. Lurah Satro Amijoyo explained to me in a

straightforward way:

“This is a very uncertain period. Unemployment is high. Basic needs are overpriced.

People can get shortsighted at times. Faced with problems they do not expect, like flooding, can make them lost their rationality. If they protested in a large mass to the factory, and it ended up as a violent event, it would be very unfortunate for all parties. If the factory was burnt for example, none of us win. Everybody loses. The factory lost their investment. Local people lost their jobs. I don’t want that to happen.”³⁴

To avoid aggressive action toward it, the factory offered to pay for all construction materials needed for the drain; BKM would only need to provide sweat equity for the construction process.

Picture 3. Local residents constructing the drain outlet outside factory wall Picture 4. The drain inside the factory’s site

Sources: BKM Rejo Makmur, Kelurahan Yosorejo’s internal documentation.