The Last of the Rampasasa Pygmy

It was already late at night when Tempo arrived at Martinus's residence in Flores Island community of Rampasasa. Under the dim light of a solar-powered LED lamp, Petrus Antas, a tua tenoa Manggarai vernacular for a customary leaderexplained the poor living conditions of the indigenous Rampasasa pygmies. He sat surrounded by hamlet residents.

Having no ID cards, the residents do not have access to government aid programs like the People's Health Guarantee, or People's Temporary Direct Aid (BLSM). The hamlet is not reachable by public vehicles. The state electricity company PLN has promised to link the community to the electricity grid by 2014 but a year later, "nothing has happened," said Martinus as he pulled down the lamp cord to make the light brighter. But due to the many hours of cloudy skies the February day that Tempo visited, little solar energy was stored, and therefore the lamps dimmed again. Antas is the father of Rampasasa hamlet head, Martinus.

April 7, 2015