Merapi Eruption Marks Recession And Worthless Rice Fields

JAKARTA - The 1930s was one of the toughest times for the Indonesian economy. At that time, Indonesia experienced a recession that led to an economic depression. That period was even known as the slip era. It is even seen as one of the tragedies in the history of the nation.

Missing time is a term derived from the word "malaise", a word from the French language. The word stems from a medical term for a state of illness or lethargy. At that time the Dutch East Indies economy was in a sluggish state, as a result of the fall in stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States (US) in October 1929.

"People later named it 'Black Thursday'. The day was October 24, 1929, in New York which was getting cold by the fall. On Wall Street, the little corner that is the financial center of the United States, something extraordinary happened. People were busy selling shares, almost simultaneously. The noise in the stock exchange building, which is about 100 years old, is deafening. Share prices fell rapidly, everyone, ”wrote Mohamad Cholid in his writing in Tempo Magazine entitled Krisis 1930, Krisis 1987? (1987).

The Dutch East Indies was also affected by the US economic downturn. The economic recession of 1929 and the following years led to a collapse in the prices of almost all agricultural products in the archipelago. The native population received a sudden blow. Their income - in the form of labor wages or agricultural selling price - depends entirely on the export product.

During that time, the peasants experienced enormous difficulties. They are forced to find new income. Agriculture no longer gives money. This condition is exacerbated by the various debts they have. They were forced to give up money and jewelry which were their only property.

Quoted from P. Swantoro in the book From Book to Book: Connecting to Become One (2016), when goods and money became scarce in an economic depression, conditions were exacerbated by the eruption of Mount Merapi in Yogyakarta on 18 December 1930.

The eruption seemed to be a sign that the misery of the people would continue. Later, the eruption of Mount Merapi killed no less than 1,500 people and 2,500 animals died.

Not only that. The eruption of Mount Merapi also caused hectares of wild rice fields and hundreds of houses burned or collapsed. In the future, the eruption of Mount Merapi was believed to be a sign of financial crisis.

Not without reason. This is because the Mount Merapi leutsan on January 17, 1997 was also a sign of the coming of the Soeharto era monetary crisis.

Conditions didn't even go well afterwards. The Dutch East Indies government used to earn up to 54 million guilders in 1928 from Indonesia's important agricultural products (tea, sugar, coffee, copra, and incense). However, in 1932 the Company suffered a loss of 9 million guilders.

"Suddenly, foreign nations stopped buying these products (tea, sugar, copra coffee and tobacco). By cutting prices to a minimum, the market can be recovered for a portion of production. However, while the number of products decreased by 50 percent, the value of exports decreased to 25 percent, "wrote Bernard HM Vlekke in the book Nusantara (1961).

Losses extended to other sectors, to the point that European companies in the Dutch East Indies were even cut back to the point of touching zero. The workers were fired and the welfare of European settlers then decreased.

During the economic depression of the 1930s, neither the colonial government nor the native people immediately gave up. The colonial government also worked on various policies to reduce unemployment.

One of them is by conducting an unemployment survey through the Dutch East Indies Manpower Office to then be given cash assistance and skills training. The officers visited the villages to collect data, both in Batavia, Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya.

This method tends not to work well because it only targets the upper class. The Company also made other programs to help unemployed people.

As revealed by Purnawan Basundoro in the book Merebut Ruang Kota: Action for the Poor City of Surabaya 1900-1960s (2013), he revealed, based on research from the Dutch East Indies Manpower Office, the lives of workers living in the Surabaya village are quite helped thanks to the existence of " Cooperative Bank. "

Cooperative banks that are present in these villages provide loans and set up stalls for daily necessities. The loan can be paid in weekly installments after they receive payment from the workplace.

In addition, various social and religious organizations belonging to bumiputra, such as Muhammadiyah, are also active in providing social assistance to village residents. they provide assistance to those who are suffering the most from economic depression.

"Such actions protect thousands of poor and unemployed people in the city of Surabaya from a worse situation," concluded Purnawan.