Exodus as millions flee Jakarta to return home for holy Ramadan

ELIZABETH JACKSON: In Australia recently we've seen a debate about whether Indigenous communities should be shut down and the locals forced to move to big cities, where services are more easily available.

This past week, millions of Indonesians have fled from the major cities to return to the place they feel connected to.

The exodus from places like Jakarta is estimated at about 20 million people this year - not far off the population of Australia.

Here's, our Indonesia correspondent, George Roberts.

(Sound of train departing)

GEORGE ROBERTS: At Senen Station in central Jakarta, thousands of people have boarded trains to "pulang kampoeng" - or go home to the village.

This time of year is particularly special. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan has just finished and the country's biggest holiday begins.

The capital seems abandoned, as people make the annual pilgrimage home to their families for the religious festival.

But i t's not just once a year.

Millions of people in Indonesia leave behind the poverty of their remote villages and communities to seek a better life or income in the big cities.

It's common for those people who settle in the sprawling metropolises to then send money back to families and relatives in the villages.

After Ramadan, local governments prepare for scores more people to make their way into the cities looking for opportunities.

The interesting thing is that Indonesians tend to keep a connection to their homelands, their culture and their local language.

Indonesia is made up of about 300 different ethnic groups. And while Bahasa Indonesia is the official language, there are more than 700 different dialects spoken.

For example, I once interviewed a 93-year-old woman who only spoke a basic colloquial Sundanese dialect. We found a man who spoke that and formal Sundanese and ABC producer Ari Wuryantama understands formal Sundanese, so he could tra nslate that to me.

It was a long process of asking a question and having it relayed to the interviewee and back, through two people and three different languages.

The end-of-Ramadan return to the village is a bit like people returning home to their parents for Christmas in Australia. But it's more than that: it's part of how Indonesians maintain a connection to their local language and ethnicity, of which people are very proud.

Those Indonesians who can afford tend to "pulang kampoeng" or return to the village many times throughout the year.

It's accepted as why that person needs time off work. It's not just, "Ah, I want to chuck a sickie" or, "Mate, can I have tomorrow off?"

Pulang kampoeng is held in high regard. It's important for people to return to their village, see their homelands, their extended families and reconnect with their roots.

The pride in heritage is carried through generations, too. Even friends of mine who were born in and grew up in Jakarta still identify as being from another part of the country, because that's where their family is from and the village they would go to at times of the year like this.

People are often multilingual, too. Even people who didn't receive a strong education are able to speak the official language Bahasa Indonesia, their own local language or dialect and some English.

So in the coming days and weeks, people will start flooding back to Jakarta, having been to various parts of the country - only to head off again next year.

This is George Roberts in Jakarta for Correspondents Report.

Source: Exodus as millions flee Jakarta to return home for holy Ramadan