A
is for....Arisan - Savings Club
By
Sue Potter
Many
Indonesians across the archipelago, especially
in Java, belong to arisan: groups of friends,
family or co-workers who each pool an
equal amount of money monthly, and take
turns pocketing the gathered sum. Trust
between members is essential and membership
is mandatory until a cycle of “sharing”
is completed, as a winner could vanish
with the monthly pool leaving remaining
arisan members with a diminished ‘pot’.
Arisan money will often fund something
big: a washing machine or motorcycle, pay school registration fees,
or be spent on something expensive but
slightly frivolous, such as jewelry. Rarely
are winnings deposited to a bank account;
the money usually has been ‘spent’ months before it’s won.
Amounts contributed monthly vary considerably
from group to group; at society ‘arisan
Gucci’ millions of rupiah will change hands, while a group
of daily workers
may contribute only Rp.50,000 to 100,000
each for a total monthly ‘pot’ of less than
a million. ‘Shadow contributors’ can share
the load with an arisan participant, dividing
the winnings when the ‘front man’s’ name
is drawn. A feeling of luck colours the
winner, who’s usually chosen by random
drawing at the monthly meeting. The Echols/Shadily
dictionary definition states: “Arisan
- lottery by neighbourhood wives.” Ever
noticed a large gathering of beautifully
dressed women, bubbling with expectation
and excitement, at the latest trendy restaurant?
It’s probably arisan – look for the ‘accountant’
who receives the money and notes everything
in a ledger.
Arisan in the 1950s eased the cost of entertaining
in a time of general hardship. All shared
the cost of hosting a party, with the
hostess-of-the-month using the gathered
money to supply tea and snacks. Arisan
also built relationships in groups where
people might have something in common
but meet erratically, such as wives of
Foreign Service officers. By 1975, arisan
had become distinctly commercial - a great
way to save money for items too extravagant
to be included in the family budget. Housewives
could ask for arisan money, if household
funds were strictly doled out by thrifty
husbands, and then quietly spend the windfall
as they chose.
One plausible theory on the origin of arisan is
that they were organised by women in the
markets as a way of gathering capital for
large purchases.
To this day, arisan are popular in the pasar;
members can join the usual monthly arisan,
and also weekly or even daily ones, and
may belong to more than one group. For
villagers, opening a bank account required
one to be both literate and with a minimum deposit,
so arisan offered a way to save money,
and socialise. The Indonesian government,
recognising this large untapped pool of
potential depositors, created the ‘Tabanas’
(Tabungan Nasional) savings accounts around 1980.
“Arisan!”, the recent blockbuster film, capitalised
on the popularity and ubiquity of the
savings groups in Jakarta. The film-going
public easily recognised the situations
presented (with the exception, possibly,
of the scandalous kissing scenes). Our
household staff always assume we’re ‘ikut
arisan’ during our monthly Indonesian
Heritage Society meetings! If we consider
knowledge to be wealth, I suppose we are.
Published
in The Indonesian Heritage Society Newsletter, June 2004
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