A Safe Haven to Go Home to

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Workers harvest tea using a manual tea picker on 22 June 2019 at the Malabar, Afdeling Sukaratu plantation of state-owned company PTPN VIII Malabar in Pangalengan, Bandung regency, West Java.

The earth, water and air of the tea plantation seems to hold a magical power. Green shoots of the leaves seem like not tired to call. Whoever has entered its heart, it will be hard for them to turn away. They will generally return.

The horizon in the east was still dark. It was just a little orange blush dawn. Silence covers the Tea and Quinine Research Center (PPTK) plantation in Gabung, Mekarsari village, Pasirjambu district, Bandung Regency, West Java, at the end of June last year.

Away from the residential site, an omprengan (rental) car drove slowly over the concrete road that curved uphill. In front of the car was a motorcycle driven by a plantation foreman assistant.

About 5 kilometers from the residential site, the motorcycle for the foreman assistant and the omprengan car stopped amid tea fields at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level. From the car 10 female tea pickers got out. To them, PPTK plantation manager Adhi Irianto Mastur immediately showed the location of the picking for that day. The stretch was on the ground with a slope of 25-50 degrees.

The early morning air temperature was recorded at 8 degrees Celsius. The female tea pickers wore warm clothes, socks and boots. Before entering the tea plantation area, they wore transparent plastic coverings so that the dew on the tea leaves would not penetrate into their clothes.

Tatik, 37, was one of the tea pickers in the group. That morning she had worked on her fifth day in the plantation. However, the tea plantation was an old home for the mother of two children. Tatik used to work as a tea picker in Mekarsari village previously. She worked for almost 10 years. However, for a certain reason, five years ago, she decided to move to Bandung.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

A plantation worker carries a bag of freshly plucked tea leaves on 22 June 2019 at the Malabar, Afdeling Sukaratu plantation of state-owned company PTPN VIII Malabar in Pangalengan, Bandung regency, West Java.

The reason was because her wage as a tea picker and the salary of her husband who worked odd jobs was increasingly mediocre to finance the needs of family life. Moreover, her two children still went to school. Obviously a lot of money was needed. She left her two children with her parents in the village. In Bandung, she worked as a garment factory worker for five years with a final salary of Rp 2.8 million per month.

However, it turned out that the greater wages in the city still made her uncomfortable. She decided to return to the village, to the tea plantation. There was peace that she could not get elsewhere. "I want to be close to my children and mother. More peaceful," said Tatik, who now has to bear the burden of living costs for her children after divorce.

Tatik\'s wages as a laborer picking black tea and green tea used to average around Rp 600,000 to Rp 800,000 per month. Now, because her physique is not as strong as earlier, Tatik chooses to return to the plantation as a picker for white tea because the work is much lighter. The wage is only Rp 300,000 to Rp 400,000 per month.

Now, besides being a picking laborer, he is involved in developing the dairy cow business.

Another villager who once moved away to the city was Asep Cucu, 25, one of the tea picking workers at the Malabar plantation. After graduating from high school in 2009, he tried his luck in Bandung to become a factory worker for two years. Now, besides being a picking laborer, he is involved in developing the dairy cow business. From his efforts, he can earn Rp 4.5 million per month.

From this money, he sets aside Rp 1 million per month for his children\'s education savings. He wants to live in a tea plantation, but with a brighter future, at least the future of his children. He did not want to be trapped in a cycle of poverty and powerlessness in the comfort of tea plantation.

Lure of the tea plantation

In the tea plantation, some of the workers used to try to get out, but eventually returned. However, more and more people have spent their entire lives on the plantation, working up to their retirement. Even, not a few who, even though they have entered their retirement age, still continue to work on the plantation. This happened from generation to generation.

Ayik, 56, started working at the Malabar plantation in 1981. Initially he worked as a freelance labor in the plant maintenance section. Then, he moved from one section to another until he was appointed as a permanent employee in the vehicle section until retiring in 2012.

Ayik\'s wife also works in a tea plantation. They are the second generation to work in the tea plantation. Now the baton of the tea plantation generation is being passed on to their children. Of Ayik\'s seven children, five work at state-owned plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) VIII.

There is no work contract until death at the tea plantation. There is also no doctrine of loyalty in a tea plantation. What exists is a small and old world, which is quiet, far from the city, and economically minimal. Even, once again, the situation is getting more difficult in the past decade. This is all realized and experienced by Tatik, Asep, Ayik, and all tea plantation workers.

After all, tea plantations remain a safe haven for those and anyone who does not have enough skills to try their luck in the city or compete in the swift waves of changing times. Tea plantations are a labor-intensive industry that does not require stringent technical skills at lower employment levels.

A total of 129.36 million people worked and 6.82 million people were unemployed.

Based on data from the Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the number of labor force in Indonesia as of February 2019 reached 136.18 million. A total of 129.36 million people worked and 6.82 million people were unemployed. Around 87 percent of workers graduated from senior high school and vocational school and below.

Most of the workers had elementary school education, namely 52.40 million people or 40.51 percent. Next, 17.86 percent had high school education. Workers with junior high and vocational education were 17.75 percent and 11.31 percent respectively.

The wise men remind not to live to work, but work to live. With all the latest problems that are increasingly heavy, tea plantations are still at least seeking to provide a way of balance for job seekers, for life seekers.

This is because tea plantations are not just a matter of work and wages. Tea plantations are also living spaces and community spaces in a healthy and quiet area. Tea plantations are mini civilizations with relatively lower living costs.

Large tea plantations usually become a kind of independent township at the most minimal level. From the aspect of area alone, one large plantation can have an area of more than 1,000 hectares, including tea plantations, processing plants, plantation infrastructure, and social infrastructure.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

A tea picker plucks peko (young tea leaves) on 20 June 2019 at a plantation run by the Tea and Cinchona Research Center in Mekar Sari village, Pasir Jambu district, of Bandung regency, West Jawa. The young tea leaves were harvested to produce white tea, the most expensive type of tea.

The social infrastructure in question, among others, is a simple and free residential area for workers and employees. Tea plantations also usually allocate a number of vacant areas for permanent employees or casual laborers to plant seasonal crops to meet domestic food needs or for additional family income.

Energy needs, such as electricity, are guaranteed. If it is not supplied from the state-owned electricity company PLN network, it is usually supplied freely from a micro-scale hydropower plant owned by the plantation. Clean water supply is also guaranteed and free.

Public facilities, such as schools, clinics, and fields, are also available. Schools being provided are generally ranging from playgrounds, kindergartens, elementary schools, until junior high school.

For food, clothing, and other necessities, the plantation usually has a market on certain days. Traders from the downstream areas usually go up to the location of the plantation to sell their goods on the days of the payment of wages for both permanent employees and casual laborers.

More than that, the plantation provides healthy and cool air as well as calm and green nature for each of its inhabitants. All day, all year!

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Tea pickers carefully transfer freshly plucked tea leaves into mesh bags on 20 June 2019 at a plantation run by the Tea and Cinchona Research Center in Mekar Sari village, Pasir Jambu district, of Bandung regency, West Jawa. The young tea leaves they had harvested to be produced into white tea.

However, the tea plantation is now getting old and has many problems. It is not known how many years the safe haven will last. Without a solid national strategy involving the government and all stakeholders in the national tea industry, the safe haven faces a bleak period. Meanwhile, the horizon in the west is getting darker. The orange tint of dusk begins to disappear. Silence covers the Tea and Quinine Research Center (PPTK) plantation in Gambung, Mekarsari village, Pasirjambu district, Bandung Regency. (RTG)