A Drive-Through

July 7, 2021

A truck of goats woke me up. Their eyes were looking at me, wanting to make sure I was not the one who bought them for the upcoming Eid Adha. It was 6:25 am; I gathered my senses. It was a rest area — we arrived at Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra. We crossed the Sunda channel from Merak port to the Bakauheni. I was tired, my back was stiff. I was still upset that the port police didn’t check our Covid-19 paperwork (vaccination card, PCR tests) even though it has been four days since the semi-lockdown, limiting people’s mobility in Java and Bali. Finally it was sun, I couldn’t see anything back when we touched down in the port. But I already had a feeling.

The road trip continued. My guts were right. The dark shades I couldn’t see last night by this 400-km highway are palm oil trees. Plantations. Remember they’re not necessarily forests in the strictest sense. We started in the rest area 256. As we carried on, so did the palm oil plantations. In 284^th km, palm oil plantations turn to rubber but not for long. Blank spots ensued (km 290-294), and then some palm oil again. It is not so hard to tell that those blank spots will be filled by palm oil; the seeds were already there by their sides.

I texted my friend, “my island is cursed.” Old and smaller palm oil trees were on the side of the roads entering Palembang, South Sumatra. We entered Banyuasin, the capital of state-owned corporation, the Indonesia State Plantation VII, Ltd. The number signals where it is located. Banyuasin is rich with rubber plantations, with occasional palm oil plots.

This is as Sumatra as it gets.

In Jambi, palm oil plots reign; this will continue until you enter Riau. Trucks carrying the palm fruits were everywhere. Some even brought the already-processed fruits to be used as fertilizers. Voluminous trucks. With funky stickers like “Mantan Youtuber” (Former Youtuber); “Nyinyiranmu, Semangatku” (Your Snarls, My Spirit).

I have to remind myself that we are in the middle of the pandemic, as excavators and backhoes replant the plantations or even open the new plantation plots. A bitter and enraging reminder that even as the covid has been devastating Indonesia, the state budget for the 2021 fiscal year still prioritizes infrastructures, in which most of them would be either for highways and definitely plantations. Not health sectors.