As Sumatra speeds into a modern economy, a boatman struggles to tread water
Development has poured into the Palembang area as Indonesia readies itself for the 2018 Asia Games, but some are being left behind along the Musi River
I am in a ketek – a sleek, wooden-hulled 6m motorised craft – as it slices its way through the turbid waters of Palembang’s magnificent Musi River. The 750km Musi is Sumatra’s longest river and originates in mountains to the west of Bengkulu. With the russet-red Ampera Bridge behind us, my 64-year-old boatman, Pak Teguh, steers us away from the rambunctious Enambelas Ilir market.
The history of the region is near ancient, and much of the traditions of the community remain, but some locals, such as Pak Teguh who has been living and working on the river most of his life, are being left behind as a new economy requiring more skills and education has suddenly arrived in the second-largest city on Sumatra.
But for now we’re off to Pak Teguh’s village, Kampung Tiga Ulu, on the far side of the river. It’s an exciting ride as we weave past large oceangoing vessels, tug boats as well as barges, ferries and other craft. The broad, alluvial plains of Sumatra’s east coast are marked by a series of impressive, silt-laden rivers: the Kampar, the Batanghari and the Siak. However, the Musi, on whose banks the Buddhist Srivijaya Empire was to emerge, remains the most economically dynamic river in the area, as well as being suffused by a mixture of history and legend.
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Long a hub for trade, scholarship and industry, Palembang’s history is intertwined with all the great kingdoms of the Nusantara and beyond, from Ayudhya, Khmer to Malacca and Majapahit, not to mention the Chola’s of Southern India, as well as China’s Tang and Song dynasties.