Trader's Mentality

I won't bother too much with the sad state of infrastructure in Jakarta if I don't have a family living with me here. But I do, so I become more critical as the lack of public infrastructure, such as decent sidewalks and bus stops, starts creeping into family's enjoyment of living in Jakarta.

We have been living in Jakarta for 8 months, and slowly - but surely - we feel the effects of lack of infrastructure in our daily lives. It is very difficult to walk around our neighborhood. The hot weather makes kids and women - mostly - uncomfortable when walking outside in the sun. The irony here is that Jakarta has fertile land and it shouldn't be difficult to grow large trees sheltering every road.

I can only blame for the sorry state of roads on a severe lack of planning on roads being built and maintained. This lack of planning happens everywhere. I see it in the roads, in the buildings where designs and construction materials seem haphazardly assembled, in houses where they have little regards for safety, comfort, and aesthetics. There are places in Jakarta - to name an example is the food court in Pejaten Village - that show good design and build, but it is a tiny minority. By and large, Jakarta is a complete design mess.

I often ask "How come the lack of planning seems to permeate many activities in Indonesia?" They seem related to a lack of thinking and putting this thinking into action. Why do people appear always in a hurry when they think about something? Indonesians are a relaxed bunch when they talk, but when they think they always want short cuts. Here is what I think the reason why.

I think most Indonesians have trader's mentality. A trader is someone who derives his money for living from trading activities: buying and selling stuff. A trader will pay a lot of attention to maintaining good relationships with different people: customers, suppliers, and informants. A trader will not try to offend someone for a possibility that this someone might be one day his customer.

A trader is a consummate deal maker. A trader maintains a balance of interests between suppliers and customers. It is not in the interests of a trader - I believe - to change a status quo once he learns how he derives profits from it. It is more profitable to have a stable network of contacts than to produce a quality product.

I think most of 66 years of independence have been governed by this principle where maintaining a status quo is more important than building a strong nation. Look at how the political elite get their money from and you will realize they have trader's mentality.

A trader is not a builder. A trader does not create something out of nothing. A trader brings products from one place to another. Indonesia has a strong trader's mentality since it is a vast archipelago and relies on abundant natural resources to make money.

A builder will not focus his energy entirely on building good relationships but also on building good physical objects, such as roads, building, and manufactured products. I see the trader v. builder dichotomy everytime I listen to discussions about infrastructure woes in Indonesia, from flood mitigation efforts to building safer roads.

Trader's mentality also explains why construction companies - despite having already assurance of winning contracts from their cronies and friends - still build shoddy buildings and roads. At least one thinks that these companies make an attempt to build decent products, but they don't. They are always in a hurry to make more money and are willing to sacrifice quality.

The problem with infrastructure, however, is that after it is built haphazardly - complete with their crappy qualities - it is very difficult to remove. You cannot easily remove badly designed roads and buildings. On the other hand, you can easily actually remove bad contact networks. In this sense, I think the rulers of Indonesia - the rich, the smart, the powerful - have been investing in the wrong kind of investment. Instead of building good infrastructure, it has invested in an infrastructure of network alliance by showering and exchanging each other with money and power.