Kampung Bali: small steps in the big city

In a city like Jakarta, where the industrial, economic and political powers of a country converge around 10 million people, you’d think there’d be little room left for small-scale community leadership.


Yet throughout central Jakarta, in mini-suburbs called kampungs that feel like villages, gangs of screaming children play in the streets, neighbours talk with one another and community leadership is alive and well.


In the neighbourhood of Kampung Bali – a low-rise hamlet surrounded by office towers and malls – one traditional Javanese house has 39 pairs of sandals and thongs on its doorstep.

This is where Kampung Bali’s residents come to meet: the family home of Karma Widjaja Sosroatjmodjo, or Widi, a warm character wearing a traditional purple sarong and large white smile.


The son of Soemarno Sosroatmodjo, Jakarta’s first governor post-colonialism, Widi continues the leadership tradition by hosting these weekly meetings, something he’s been doing since 2000. It was then that Widi saw the need for his community to be re-engaged as the older generation of religious leaders were either passing on or losing touch.

“I approached the community and asked if we should organise a new group and they said ‘Of course, but in a different way,’” says Widi.

“In the past, groups like this were hosted by just one religious leader. But now we have a team. Sometimes we have leaders from family planning organisations, then people from drug prevention programs come and explain issues. We have people from government and even the mayor of Jakarta came here to talk with the community.”


Community decisions following meetings are relayed to local government, whom Widi is connected with through his father’s legacy and his own community work.

Membership for the lounge room discussion series has reached 120 and the scope of issues covered continues to grow.

The maxim of not discussing religion, politics or personal family business doesn’t apply in Indonesia; those having family troubles or neighbourhood quarrels are encouraged to work through their issues at the meetings. At other times the policy differences between political parties, or religious differences, are debated.

One of the most important functions of the meetings has been education and the formulation of unified responses around issues concerning the community.


Kampung Bali’s gravest issue so far has been the narcotics trade, which until recently gave this quiet suburb the unwelcome title of Jakarta’s drug capital. Many locals got caught up in illicit activity and its impacts were soon felt throughout the community.

“One of the ladies who always comes to our meetings, she had three children – two boys and one girl – and these two boys died from drug abuse,” says Widi. “Then the husband also passed away. She saw no more reason to live, so we all tried to be close to her, trying to save her.”


Social services to deal with such problems are difficult for most Jakartans to access. In response, Widi’s community group developed a drug education and family support program of its own.

When conservative religious elders began refusing to administer funeral rites or visit the families of victims of drug abuse, Widi’s community group stepped in again.

“We tried to find the right and best way for all our people, because anyway they are still our people, our community, and we have to think about the community. So when the religious leaders here knew somebody had died from drugs and didn’t want to come and do the absolution – they didn’t even want to do the prayer – I approached them and said ‘Okay, it’s their mistake to be involved with drugs, but it’s our duty to help them, especially their families.’ Our people now understand that.”

Widi credits the concerted effort of the people in his neighbourhood with bringing the drug situation under control.


With Indonesia’s elections looming, the community group is now focussing on building religious and political tolerance, an issue Widi is passionate about.

“In Islam, and in our community, we have different ways of thinking. But that’s okay as long as we always respect each other. Your religion is for you and my religion is for me, but we respect each other,” he says.

“It would have been very easy for God to make all the people in the world with the same thinking, but we have to think also why there is Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and so on. We have to think about why God made us different and what it can teach us. Our community has been making a lot of progress with this idea.”